244 EDGE OF THE JUNGLE 



with islands and lily-pads as havens, and water- 

 ways in every direction, Rikki is reduced chiefly 

 to grasshoppers and such small game. He has 

 spread along the entire coast, through the cane- 

 fields and around the rice-swamps, and it will 

 not be his fault if he does not eventually get a 

 foothold in the jungle itself. 



No month or day or hour fails to bring vital 

 changes tragedies and comedies to the net- 

 work of life of these tropical gardens ; but as we 

 drive along the broad paths of an afternoon, the 

 quiet vistas show only waving palms, weaving 

 vultures, and swooping kiskadees, with bursts of 

 color from bougainvillea, flamboyant, and queen 

 of the flowers. At certain times, however, the 

 tide of visible change swelled into a veritable 

 bore of life, gently and gradually, as quiet wa- 

 ters become troubled and then pass into the 

 seething uproar of rapids. In late afternoon, 

 when the long shadows of palms stretched their 

 blue-black bars across the terra-cotta roads, the 

 foliage of the green bamboo islands was dotted 

 here and there with a scattering of young herons, 

 white and blue and parti-colored. Idly watch- 

 ing them through glasses, I saw them sleepily 

 preening their sprouting feathers, making inef- 



