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Sydney Porter—Notes from South America



we found that it was made by a Bellbird. It was an adult bird in very

fine condition with snow-white plumage and bright green naked

throat.


Some miles outside Bio Grande do Sul on the Atlantic Coast was

a wonderful stretch of sandy shore, hundreds of miles long and an ideal

haunt for seabirds. A bird which I saw here for the first time was the

Skimmer or Scissor-bill, a strange black and white, Tern-like bird

possessing an extraordinary beak. Darwin describing it says, “ The

beak is flattened laterally, that is in a plane at right angles to that of a

Duck or Spoonbill. It is as flat and elastic as an ivory paper knife and

the lower mandible, different from any other bird, is an inch longer than

the upper.” The bird obtains its food by flying low over the water and

ploughing the surface with the lower mandible, thus catching small

fish which swim near the top of the water. The beak gives the bird an

extremely grotesque appearance.


In the marsh lands near the sea were to be seen the conspicuous

and graceful forms of numerous Great White Egrets, now safe at last

from persecution. I brought a fine pair of these back with me from the

Argentine and unfortunately lost them through my own foolishness.

Their plumage was rather soiled and one day on board the ship on the

homeward voyage I thought I would put them out in a shower of rain

to enable the birds to wash themselves, unfortunately the “ shower ”

proved to be a torrential tropical downpour of such severity, that one

bird sustained a broken wing and thigh and the other died the next

day. I cursed myself for being such a fool to lose though my own fault

these two splendid birds. Strange to say the rain had no such effect

on two pairs of Snowy Egrets which I also put out.


On this wonderful sandy beach which stretched as far as the eye

could see on either hand, we saw a Great Grebe (JEcJimo'phorus major)

laying out on the sands ; at a distance it looked a very strange creature,

almost like a prehistoric reptile with its large flattened body and long

narrow head. The Grebe was surrounded by many other shore birds

such as Sandpipers, Oyster-catchers, and others which I was unable to

identify. As we approached, the bird turned round and made off towards

the sea with motion like that of a seal, undulating its body along the

sand ; as the sea was very shallow, it was quite a long time before it



