NESTING HERONS. 



151 



its low wall-like sides, foiuid them to be tenanted by two 

 kinds of heron, both of which were nesting. One was a 

 night heron (Nycticorax violaceus) and the other the 

 little green bittern (Butorides robinsoni), specimens of 

 whose eggs we procured. It is worth noting that the 

 little green bittern of Barbados nests in May, June and 

 July. In these mangrove bushes we also noticed several 

 large iguanas of a very dark colour, and one was so 

 suspiciously close to a nest of one of the night-herons, 

 that there seemed to be little doubt in our mind that it 

 was there for the express purpose of helping itself to an 

 egg or two. 



At the end of this peculiar inlet of the sea, which seemed 

 more like a gigantic dock than the work of Nature, stretched 

 a perpendicular wall of very high mangrove and avicennia 

 trees. They grew luxuriantly from the dark festering 

 slime of a swamp ; and their branches were full of birds, 

 attracted by an abundance of insect life. A narrow 

 path had been hacked through the dense undergrowth, 

 and following this we gained the dry land, and found 

 ourselves in the cool shade of a small cocoanut grove. 



We stood for a moment to take in the scene, curious 

 to see what manner of island this was, which we were 

 about to annex in the name of the British Ornithologists' 

 Chib. 



After the glare of the sea and the glassy water of the 

 lagoon, the light here was wondrously subdued, and we were 

 in no hurry to plimge again into the full blaze of the sun. 

 Above our heads the soft Trade-winds dallied with the 

 feathery branches of the palms. Now and again, their 

 fronds rattled lightly against one another, intensifying 

 the silence which reigned beneath. Through the groined 

 dome, formed by their graceful branches, the sun glinted 

 here and there, and threw great splashes of gold upon 

 the sandy soil beneath. 



Grass was growing about the bases of the grey pillar-like 

 trunks in patches of deepest green ; in vivid contrast to 

 that which we could see beyond in the full glare of the 



