158 OUR SEARCH FOR A WILDERNESS. 



Whether these two phenomena of flocking birds indicated 

 merely a nightly roosting habit or an actual, more or less 

 local migration, they were of the greatest interest, and 

 spectacular in the extreme. Our opinion inclines decidedly 

 toward the latter theory, as they both differed greatly from 

 the regular roosting flights which wc observed elsewhere. 



Long after dark, about nine o'clock, in the faint light 

 of the cloud-dimmed moon, we caught glimpses of occasional 

 ghostly forms flitting silently past, and when we flashed our 

 powerful electric light upon them, the feathered ghosts would 

 emit frightened squawks; revealed as Snowy Egrets or young 

 Blue Herons. Here and there among the mangroves, large 

 lightning bugs flashed. At last we rolled up in our blankets 

 and slept on the thwarts, to dream of the unnumbered legions 

 of Anis and Parrots far oft' behind us in the blackness of the 

 mangrove jungle. 



In a soft steady rain we steamed all next morning up the 

 Waini, seeing few signs of life, except three Toucans which 

 flew across at Barrimani Police Station. At noon we reached 

 Farnum's at the junction of the Waini and Barama rivers. 

 JNIr. and Mrs. Farnum live in a small house perched on the 

 very summit of a symmetrically rounded hill — the first 

 elevation we had seen in this flat region. There is a tiny 

 store at the foot of the hill, and a saw-mill, and in the 

 grass of the clearing, bete-rouge lie in patient wait for the 

 passer-by. Mrs. Farnum told us that "Hummingbirds" 

 flew into the peaked roof of the house almost every day and 

 died. The natives call by this name all the species of Honey 

 Creepers, and a Yellow-winged '^" male was picked up from 

 the floor during our visit. 



We found later that this was such a common occurrence 

 that in almost all the houses there were instruments for 

 getting rid of the bewildered, fluttering birds. The more 

 cruel used only a long stick with which the birds were struck 



