A TROPIC GARDEN 249 
which had lost a single feather from each wing. 
So there was no hit-or-miss method—no luck in 
the strongest birds taking toll from more than 
two of the returning parents. 
Observing this vesper migration in different 
places, I began to see orderly segregation on a 
large scale. All the smaller herons dwelt to- 
gether on certain islands in more or less social 
tolerance; and on adjoining trees, separated by 
only a few yards, scores of hawks concentrated 
and roosted, content with their snail diet, and 
wholly ignoring their neighbors. On the other 
side of the gardens, in aristocratic isolation, was 
a colony of stately American egrets, dainty and 
graceful. Their circumference of radiation was 
almost or quite a circle, for they preferred the 
ricefields for their daily hunting. Here the great 
birds, snowy white, with flowing aigrettes, and 
long, curving necks, settled with dignity, and 
here they slept and sat on their rough nests of 
sticks. 
When the height of homing flight of the host 
of herons had passed, I noticed a new element of 
restlessness, and here and there among the fo- 
liage appeared dull-brown figures. There oc- 
curred the comic explanation of white herons 
