January, 1923 
Pretty soon your little skiff can be 
plied no longer through the oozing mud, 
and you crawl out and have to keep 
wading fast to prevent sinking too deep 
into the half foot of water and many 
feet of black slime. But it is only a few 
steps to crouch down in your position on 
a tussock, and await the flights of the 
ducks, which are just commencing to 
feed before the sun has risen over the 
distant hills of San Domingo. 
A LL around you the place is now 
alive with the sounds of awakening 
birds. Flocks of several dozen little 
Dominican grebes (they are consider¬ 
ably smaller than our pied-billed) are 
bobbing in and out of the water, while 
solitary and spotted sandpiper and kill- 
deer dart about. Overhead but not very 
near are flocks (they always go in 
flocks, unlike the herons and egrets) of 
the white and glossy ibis, but which, 
upon sighting you, give their warning 
squak and the whole flock swerves away. 
Now come the ducks. The Bahaman 
pintail, a beautiful bird with bright red 
patches upon white cheeks and brilliant 
green in the wings, will come singly or 
in pairs. The redhead and lesser scaup 
appear, usually higher, and in flocks; 
while an occasional ruddy (known to 
the Haitians as “Cucurem”) flies by. 
But you are more apt to find this small 
species swimming about in the water 
behind some mangroves. 
Occasionally another dug-out will 
come near, with a native come to inspect 
his primitive but ingenious wicker fish- 
traps. His competitors, the osprey and 
kingfisher, are also ever on guard to 
secure their prey by a swift dart from 
air to water. 
It is ten o’clock before you realize it, 
and with only four ducks and fourteen 
less shells, you climb into your dug-out 
and are poled back in the tropical sun to 
a welcome drink and sandwich under 
the shade of a Ford top. 
Before your brief repast is finished 
another party of hunters comes ashore 
and notes are compared with them. 
“Here,” says one, “is a peculiar bird 
which I shot. Upon picking it up out 
of the water, it cut me, and I found it 
has spurs on its wings!” 
You, being the ornithologist, walk 
over and discover one of the few spur¬ 
winged birds of the world, the Mexican 
jacana. Together with it are several 
baldpate, which later prove to be quite 
common. 
Now comes your opportunity, while 
the others are still talking over the 
shells that didn’t go off and the birds 
that flew too high, to sneak down to the 
edge of the lake and see what birds are 
there. The continual whining note from 
the bush on the right first attracts your 
attention. You sneak up and discover 
that it is that peculiar tropical bird, the 
ani, with high beak, black and about the 
size of a grackle. You may also see 
there either of two common birds of the 
same family, the Haitian lizard cuckoo 
and the mangrove cuckoo. And just be¬ 
low you hear a familiar call, and out 
peeps a yellow-throat. 
25 
^PHE feeling, which per- 
meates our entire organiza¬ 
tion, that each revolverproduced 
must add to the high reputation 
maintained since 1853, is in 
large measure responsible for 
the present superiority of our 
product. 
Smith & Wesson 
zJttanufacturers of Superior ‘Revolvers 
SPRINGFIELD 
MASSACHUSETTS 
% 
No arms are genuine Smith 
& Wesson Arms unless 
they bear plainly marked 
on the barrel, the name 
SMITH 8c WESSON. 
SPRINGFIELD. MASS. 
Catalogue sent on request 
Address Department I 
& 
a 
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