QUEST OF THE FIREBIRDS 249 



of the island's surface the colony was situated; but without 

 some hint of its location I could spend a month in fruitless 

 exploring. A few preHminary trips into the field failed to give 

 any clue. During the first of these I became badly sunburned. 

 Fresh from the rigors of a northern winter I had forgotten 

 the intensity of the sun's rays and had paid the penalty for 

 my lack of memory. 



Much of the credit of finding the nestling place of the 

 flamingos belongs to Mary Darling, which is not a name of 

 affection but the real name of the bush woman who guided me 

 to that portion of the great salt lake in the center of the island 

 where the flamingos have their colony. Mary was a most re- 

 markable person. Although she was a grandmother several 

 times over, she was the most un-grandmotherly individual I 

 have ever encountered. She was not old and feeble; quite the 

 contrary. She lived alone in a Httle driftwood and thatch hut 

 on the southern coast between Mathewtown and Lantern 

 Head. Here she made her living by hunting the wild hogs 

 which abounded in her neighborhood, and by making cleverly 

 woven grass baskets and hats which she traded for certain 

 necessities. Besides these activities she raised a few gigantic 

 sweet potatoes, some weary looking corn and guinea grain and 

 fished for conchs and other delicacies on the reef beyond her 

 door. She habitually carried an antiquated shotgun which she 

 loaded with iron slugs sawed from old ship fastenings, and 

 which went off with a roar that could be heard for miles. 

 When a wild hog crossed her path it was either blasted bodily 

 out of existence or succumbed to heart failure. I was never 

 certain which end of the shotgun was safest for it threatened 

 to explode whenever the trigger was pulled. Beside the shot- 

 gun Mary carried a two-foot machete which gave her a most 

 warlike appearance. She was a self-sufficient woman. 



She had been recommended as the only person who could 



