Sydney Porter—Notes on the Barer Foreign Softhills 187


storehouse of memory one scene which will never fade. It is as fresh

now as when it was only just impressed on the brain: the picture of

a colony of Egrets by the side of a smooth-flowing, translucent, lotus-

river. I would that I could convey to the reader a picture of that

scene but no pen, brush, or camera would ever be able to catch the

peaceful atmosphere of the haven of quietude.


The river wound in snake-like curves, smooth, deep, and oily green,

between the banks of tall green rushes and mimosa trees laden with

their fragrant blossoms. The surface of the river itself was covered

with the still more fragrant blue lotus lilies. A quiet peace enfolded

it all and each evening with the coming of the swift tropical twilight

a thousand fairy-like forms w~ould gather winging their way with light,

buoyant flight from all quarters to rest upon a spreading mimosa tree,

which with the weight of the birds and the undermining influence of

floods had partly fallen and hung at an angle over the slow-moving

river.


Here the birds could be seen in all the glory of their filmy nuptial

plumage, unsullied by any spot or mark of dirt. How ethereal they

looked in the green twilight and the bright tropical moonlight. I used

to think of how many such another scene as this there had been until

the plume hunters had found it out and taken their bloody toll and

only a few decaying and mangled corpses and dead young told their

pitiful tale.


Blue Hunting Pies


Excepting the Bird of Paradise, the lovely Pies of the genus Urocissa

are perhaps the finest of the Crow-like birds, and while they are not

uncommon in the aviaries of amateurs in this country they are not

as well known as one would wish. The expense and accommodation

needed are deterrents to the popularity of such large birds, for, besides

being fairly expensive to purchase, they require a good-sized aviary

to themselves unless kept with equally large Pies or Jays, and if one

wishes to breed them then they certainly must be kept alone.


The Occipital Blue Pie has been bred on two or three occasions,

and I considered myself fortunate some while ago in being able to secure

a very fine pair of aviary-bred birds which came to me in beautiful



