156 OUR SEARCH FOR A WILDERNESS. 



feathers are forked, swallow-like, while the intervening space 

 is filled up with the long, stiff under tail-coverts. In flight 

 the whole are spread, making a parti-colored fan of some 

 eighteen feathers instead of the usual six pairs. These under 

 tail-coverts are a full inch longer than the regular tail feathers 

 and seem to be usurping their function. 



Two old friends of northern waters appeared in small 

 numbers, Ospreys 59 circling about high in the air with now 

 and then a meteor-like dive, while Spotted Sandpipers 22 

 looped from one headland to another ahead of us. 



At half -past four in the afternoon we had our first sight of 

 the great flocks of birds which seem characteristic of this 

 season. Quite high in air, clear of the tops of the tallest 

 trees we saw a black cloud of birds approaching. We soon 

 made them out to be Greater Anis, 79 or as the natives called 

 them " Big Witch " or " Jumbie Birds." When first seen 

 they were in a dense, compact mass headed straight toward us. 



Their flight was uniform, each bird giving three to six 

 flaps and then sailing ahead for several seconds. Hundreds 

 doing this at once made the sight a most striking one, while 

 it was enhanced by their long, wedge-shaped tails, high arched 

 beaks, bright yellow eyes, and the iridescence of their dark 

 plumage as the slanting rays of the sun struck them. We 

 counted up to a thousand in the van and then gave up there 

 were at the very least four thousand birds in the flock. 



The approach of the puffing launch and our great escort 

 of Ibises and Herons disconcerted them and the entire com- 

 pany broke up, most of them descending, turning on their 

 course and fleeing ahead of us for several miles. Their 

 mode of flight changed completely, the birds flying close to 

 the water, barely skimming its surface and swinging up every 

 few yards to alight on a low branch. 



A piece of wood thrown among a mass of them would cause 

 great dismay, and they dashed down into the nearest foliage 



