474 TROPICAL WILD LIFE IN BRITISH GUIANA 



served. Along the river banks egrets are often to be seen. 

 Storks, also, are common, making a pretty picture when they 

 settle upon the top of an overhanging tree, after having been 

 disturbed at their piscatorial operations. The egret might 

 be endowed with an aesthetic sense, as it is so frequently to 

 be seen standing at the water's edge, against a background 

 of deep green grasses, its white form reflected in the glassy 

 surface, which mirrors also the deep blue of the sky over- 

 head, and the fleecy clouds drifting. Companies of spur- 

 wing sweep along, and pipers run about the sand-banks at 

 the river's brink. Two species of kingfisher are easily dis- 

 tinguishable, at river, or pond, for one is large and the other 

 is small. Closer observation leads to the discovery that there 

 are four species, including a collarless, green one. Others 

 have white collars, rufus-brown waistcoats and blue-green 

 uppers, wings and tails. The presence of a kingfisher may 

 be told, not only by its darting flight ; but, also, by its pecu- 

 liar note, which may be described as pebclacking (pebble- 

 clacking). I observed kingfishers flying overland at a con- 

 siderable distance from water, and this has led me to wonder 

 if we have a species, like one in Burma, which has forsaken 

 fishing for hunting. Flying with the kingfishers are the 

 woodpeckers, or carpenter-birds. Some handsome birds may 

 be seen throughout the region. A large bird, with a crimson 

 crest, is to be found at Uruata; the smaller one, with a red 

 head, is common about the Mission. The muscular action 

 of the woodpecker's neck, with a maxim-like rapidity of 

 blows, is an interesting study; and the bird's undulating 

 flight can hardly escape attention. 



From the thickets, along the river bank, the hubbub oF 

 gurgling bevies of old-witches may be heard. The larger 

 old-witch haunts the more open ground, and its plaintive 

 note sounds upon the savannah levels, where there are bush- 

 es, not far from water. 



Large hawks are to be seen almost anywhere in the 

 savannahs, perched, sentinel-like, upon some solitary trunk, 



