CHAP. Ill] JABIRU 87 



rah-h, ar-rah-h." It has been said that parrots in the 

 wilderness are only noisy on the wing. They are 

 certainly noisy on the wing ; and those that we saw 

 were quiet while they were feeding ; but ordinarily 

 when they were perched among the branches, and 

 especially when, as in the case of the little parakeets 

 near the house, they were gathering materials for nest- 

 building, they were just as noisy as while flying. 



The water-birds were always a delight. We shot 

 merely the two or three specimens the naturalists needed 

 for the museum. I killed a wood-ibis on the wing with 

 the handy little Springfield, and then lost all the credit 

 I had thus gained by a series of inexcusable misses, at 

 long range, before I finally kiUed a jabiru. Kermit shot 

 a jabiru with the Liiger automatic. The great, splendid 

 birds, standing about as tall as a man, show fight when 

 wounded, and advance against their assailants, clattering 

 their formidable bills. One day we found the nest of 

 a jabiru in a mighty fig-tree, on the edge of a patch of 

 jungle. It was a big platform of sticks, placed on a 

 horizontal branch. There were four half-grown young 

 standing on it. We passed it in the morning, when 

 both parents were also perched alongside ; the sky was 

 then overcast, and it was not possible to photograph it 

 with the small camera. In the early afternoon when we 

 again passed it the sun was out, and we tried to get 

 photographs. Only one parent bird was present at this 

 time. It showed no fear. I noticed that, as it stood 

 on a branch near the nest, its bill was slightly open. 

 It was very hot, and I suppose it had opened its bill 

 just as a hen opens her bill in hot weather. As we 

 rode away the old bird and the four young birds were 

 standing motionless, and with gliding flight the other 

 old bird was returning to the nest. It is hard to give 



