310 Pictures of Bird Life 



films swelled with the wet, so that I had to sinasli the 

 plates into pieces before I could o-et them out of the slides. 

 AVe had a long ride home that day in a complete state of 

 saturation. 



However, I had two more days" work in tliis laooon, and 

 obtained photographs of most of the birds and their nests. 



On INI ay 5th we took plenty of eggs of the Buff -backed 

 Herons and Egrets, and by tlie 8th the Xight-herons, 

 Squaccos, and Glossy Ibises had laid. 



These last birds had an intensely black and funereal 

 aspect amid the throngs of whiter birds. I do not know 

 whether their Spanish name, " jNIorito," has anything to do 

 with this idea. It always struck me as being possibly 

 derived from inors (death). It would certainly be appropriate, 

 though in reality there is no black at all in their plumage, 

 which is altogether glossy green and brown. They are birds 

 of extremely powerful flight ; the noise made by the wings 

 of quite a small party of them when flying past is perfectly 

 astonishing. They lay eggs of a very dark greenish-blue 

 colour, which ha\'e a somewhat pointed shape. 



The eggs of all this group are easily distinguishable one 

 from another, though they are all of different shades of blue. 

 Those of the Buff*-backed Herons are pale in colour, and 

 rounded, while the I^ittle PLgrets lay eggs pointed at both 

 ends. They are, besides, smaller and somewhat darker. 

 The Xight-heron's are also elongated and very pointed, 

 more so even than the Egrefs, but are much larger in 

 size, and as pale in coloiu' as the flrst named. The 



