154 OUR SEARCH FOR A WILDERNESS. 



For the next three hours we were enchanted by a constantly 

 changing panorama of bird life, which in extent and variety 

 can seldom be equalled elsewhere. 



While crossing the Waini several Swallow-tailed Kites 58 

 soared screaming overhead, occasionally swooping past for a 

 nearer look at us. As we skirted the great mangrove forest, 

 birds flew up ahead, few at first but in constantly increasing 

 numbers, until several hundred were in sight at once. They 

 showed little fear and were apparently content to vibrate 

 slowly along between launch and shore, accompanying us for 

 fifteen or twenty miles. 



By far the greater number were Little Blue Herons, 34 the 

 pure white immature and the slaty blue adults being equally 

 numerous. The latter were very inconspicuous among the 

 foliage, while the former stood out like marble statues against 

 green velvet. The coloring showed great asymmetrical varia- 

 tion, and one young bird with a single blue feather in the 

 right wing was so tame that it kept almost abreast of our 

 flotilla. The irregularity of moult resulted in most remark- 

 able patterns, as in several birds, each of which had one white 

 and one bluish wing. 



Half a dozen Yellow-crowned Night Herons 36 were seen 

 and twenty or thirty of the ill-named Louisianas. 35 A few 

 Great -billed Terns 14 accompanied the herons and later in the 

 afternoon we began flushing Snowy Egrets 33 in ever increas- 

 ing numbers. No American Egrets were seen. All along the 

 coast were small flocks of Scarlet Ibises, 27 from three to 

 thirty in number, and in an hour we had driven together no 

 less than four hundred. The majority were full plumaged 

 birds clad in burning vermilion, but many were young in 

 moult. We secured a young female in an interesting con- 

 dition of moult. In the stomach were found the two chelae 

 or claws of a small crustacean, each about one-third of an 

 inch in length. The wings were wholly of the immature 



