ON THE UPPER ST. JOHN'S. 141 



of the shore. " Look ! look ! a purple ! " 

 the boy cried. " See his yellow legs ! " 

 Instinctively he raised his gun, but I said 

 No. It would be inexcusable to shoot a 

 second one ; and besides, we were at that 

 moment approaching a bird about which I 

 felt a stronger curiosity, a snake-bird, or 

 water-turkey, sitting in a willow shrub at 

 the further end of the bay. " Pull me as 

 near it as it will let us come," I said. " I 

 want to see as much of it as possible." At 

 every rod or two I stopped the boat and put 

 up my glasses, till we were within perhaps 

 sixty feet of the bird. Then it took wing, 

 but instead of flying away went sweeping 

 about us. On getting round to the willows 

 again it made as if it would alight, uttering 

 at the same time some faint ejaculations, 

 like " ah ! ah ! ah ! " but it kept on for a 

 second sweep of the circle. Then it perched 

 in its old place, but faced us a little less 

 directly, so that I could see the beautiful 

 silver tracery of its wings, like the finest 

 of embroidery, as I thought. After we had 

 eyed it for some minutes we suddenly per- 

 ceived a second bird, ten feet or so from it, 

 in full sight. Where it came from, or how 



