STEAMER AND LAUNCH TO HOORIE CREEK. 157 



as if a Hawk had appeared. Little by little they drifted jjast, 

 flying rapidly near shore, and continuing in the direction which 

 they had originally chosen. A few of the birds were moulting, 

 but ]3y far the greater number were in perfect jjlumage. 



The flock had the appearance of being on some sort of 

 migration rather than assembling at a nightly roost. About 

 Georgetown and the settlements and clearings in general, 

 this Greater Ani was much rarer then the small Smooth- 

 billed species,*'" twenty of the latter being seen to one of 

 the former. These aberrant Cuckoos are most interesting 

 birds and several females are said to combine, building a 

 single hollow nest of sticks in which the eggs arc hatched. 



Hardly had the last Ani passed out of sight when a second 

 cloud of birds appeared far ahead, and before we had ap- 

 proached near enough to identify them a shrill chorus came 

 to our cars; a horde of Blue-headed Parrots"" were on their 

 way up the coast. They behaved in much the same way 

 as the Anis, but were more numerous: an estimate far below 

 the truth gave eight thousand. Closely massed though most 

 of them were, yet the eternal two and two formation of the 

 tribe of Parrots was never lost, and even when the vanguard, 

 terrified by our puffing launch, wheeled and dashed back 

 through the ranks behind, each Parrot flew always close to 

 its mate. Once later on, when only a few scores were left 

 near us, we saw several perched in a bare tree close to a 

 Hawk, like a Sparrow Hawk in size, but neither species paid 

 any attention to the other's jjresence. 



The Parrots screamed unceasingly and near the main body 

 the noise was terrific — a shrill deafening roar, as from a 

 dozen factory whistles. Until long after dark they flew 

 back and forth around us, sometimes attempting to alight 

 in a tree and falling from branch to branch almost to the 

 water, before securing a foot or beak -hold. For several 

 hours perfect pandemonium reigned around us. 



