176 
THE GOLDEN RIVER. 
heron family do. And there was another lovely 
bird of the same family of whom I know 
nothing but the Spanish name, Mirasol. I saw 
two, one, poor wretch, in a small cage in a bird 
shop at Asuncion, and the other wild in the 
Chaco. He is a good deal bigger, standing two 
foot high, very straight and stiff. His back is 
pearl grey, his underparts pure lemon, his eye 
is brown with a blue ring round it, and his bill 
is coral tipped with brown. The effect of the 
blue ring round the eye and the red bill is 
remarkable. 
But to return to the Alto-Parana. Another 
common and conspicuous bird is the White 
Kite. When I first saw him, I thought he was 
a tern. He looks like one in colour, his flight is 
the same, he has the same way of poising him¬ 
self in the air, and he goes about in parties of 
four or five together. He is a pale grey above, 
black on the wings and pure white below. I 
have never seen a bird with such power of wing. 
I never saw one perching. They were always in 
the air, delighting in their skill, now soaring, 
now swooping suddenly with incredible speed 
and grace, now almost stationary and now 
again rising and falling in the wind. And all 
this is done not for catching their food, or 
getting from place to place, or any other object 
but that of beautiful movement. It is the pure 
joy of motion. The air is their playground, in 
all its breadth and height. 
