1388 ON THE UPPER ST. JOHN’S. 
lake before unvisited, —a mass of floating 
islands and ‘ bonnets,’ —I found them not 
uncommon.” The boy’s assertions may be 
worth recording, at any rate. 
In one place he fired suddenly, and as he 
put down the gun he exclaimed, “There! 
I’ll bet I’ve shot a bird you never saw 
before. It had a bill as long as that,” 
with one finger laid crosswise upon another. 
He hauled the prize into the boat, and sure 
enough, it was a novelty, — a king rail, new 
to both of us. We had gone a little farther, 
and were passing a prairie, on which were 
pools of water where the boy said he had 
often seen large flocks of white ibises feeding 
(there were none there now, alas, though we 
crept up with all cautiousness to peep over 
the bank), when all at once I descried some 
sharp-winged, strange-looking bird over our 
heads. It showed sidewise at the moment, 
but an instant later it turned, and I saw its 
long forked tail, and almost in the same 
breath its white head. <A fork-tailed kite! 
and purple gallinules were for the time for- 
gotten. It was performing the most grace- 
ful evolutions, swooping half-way to the 
earth from a great height, and then sweep- 
