350 



HERONS. 



favours bestowed upon it ; it is jealous of any rival : should even a dog approach, 

 it immediately assails it with its beak, and drives it to a distance with every 

 demonstration of displeasure. It presents itself regularly at the dinner-table, 

 from which it chases all the domestic animals — sometimes even the negroes 

 who wait at table, should they happen to be strangers ; and only asks for a 

 share of the dinner when it has expelled from the room all who might aspire to 

 favourable notice from the members of the family. It is remarkably courageous: 

 dogs of ordinary size are obliged to submit to its will. It walks out alone 



^_ \^ 



Fig. T76. — The Gold-breasted Trumpeter {Psoi>hia crepitans). 



without any danger of losing itself, and returns home when it thinks proper: 

 it is even asserted that the agami may be trusted with the care of a flock of 

 sheep, and that every morning it will drive ducks and fowls to their pasture, 

 and bring them home at night after carefully collecting any stragglers. As for 

 the bird itself, it is never shut up, but sleeps just where it pleases, — upon the 

 roof of a barn or in the farm-yard. In short, the agami is a faithful servant, 

 intelligent, docile, and affectionate, and, like the dog. to a considerable extent 

 susceptible of education. The female, when about to lay. scrapes a hole in the 

 earth at the foot of some large tree, in which she deposits her eggs without 

 making any nest. The eggs are from ten to sixteen in number, according to 



