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 meas 
near it asit 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 
