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 o]:)erations. 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 deej) blue of the sky over- 

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

 wing sweep along, and pipers rim 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 pchclaching (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 gromid, and its plaintive 

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

 es, not far from water. 



T^ai-ge hawks are to be seen almost anywhere in the 

 savannalis, ])erched, sentinel-like, upon some solitary trunk, 



