TURTLE-SPEARING. 209 



On one of the islands covered by mangrove-trees we saw what 

 appeared trees with snow upon them. As we neared it, we found 

 it was a pelican's breeding-place, arid the grey pelicans had adopted 

 it and built their coarse nests in the low trees. Their droppings 

 made tree and island white as marble, and the dead young and the 

 wasted fish brought by the old pelicans for food for their young 

 made the odour intolerable. Many soft, fat, pulpy, downy young, 

 with mandibles so disproportionately heavy that they could not 

 lift them horizontally, sat in the nests, or on the sand where they 

 had tumbled from the nests, and gulls and fish crows had assembled 

 in crowds to feed on them. The squalling of the gulls and the 

 ludicrous attitudes of the young birds produced a comical effect. 

 The mother birds kept high in the air, flying about with distended 

 pouches waiting to feed their young, and yet shy of their uninvited 

 spectators. 



The two varieties of pelican seem to keep apart. The white 

 ones in large flocks follow in long parallel lines the schools of small 

 fish, the hinder birds flitting and tumbling over the front ranks in 

 pursuit of the fish, scattering the water in spray and making a 

 turmoil that could be seen for miles away. 



The grey pelican pursues his solitary way, flying low over the 

 water with a pendent bill like a gigantic woodcock. Every few 

 moments he drops with a splash into the water, seizes the fish, and, 

 throwing his bill into air, gobbles it down. A little black diver 

 duck followed him around, and after his plunge swims around him 

 with great vivacity, picking up the crumbs that fell from the huge 

 jaws of the great bird. When the pelican arises from the water 

 the little diver follows him to pursue his chase, like the jackal 

 that follows the lion. 



We saw the anhinga or snake-birds with their long thin necks 

 and tails sitting on the dead trees, and two men-of-war birds high 

 in the air veered to the freshening breeze. The anhinga are of 

 the cormorant family, and seem to swim under water as readily as 

 on it. Plover of many varieties, and roseate spoon-bills and other 

 wading birds stood on the sandy spits, and whirled around us as 

 we reached our island where the luncheon was stored. 



o 



