. Bird lore . for fifty yards or so, there is a literal wave of birds rising on eachside of the river, flying upward and backward in two vast unbroken sheets. ^Ilirra jacana*Phalacrocorax vigua Anhinga anhinga^Busarellus nigricollis • Bulorides striata^Ardea cocoi A Day with the Birds on a Guiana Savanna 237 From this mass, giving forth a shrill whistle which soon deepens into a per-fect roar of wings, single lines of Ducks shoot out in all directions, passingup the river on right and left over the savanna. They are Gray-necked Tree-ducks,^ with a thin scattering of Rufous^ and White-faced^ Tr
. Bird lore . for fifty yards or so, there is a literal wave of birds rising on eachside of the river, flying upward and backward in two vast unbroken sheets. ^Ilirra jacana*Phalacrocorax vigua Anhinga anhinga^Busarellus nigricollis • Bulorides striata^Ardea cocoi A Day with the Birds on a Guiana Savanna 237 From this mass, giving forth a shrill whistle which soon deepens into a per-fect roar of wings, single lines of Ducks shoot out in all directions, passingup the river on right and left over the savanna. They are Gray-necked Tree-ducks,^ with a thin scattering of Rufous^ and White-faced^ Tree-ducks. Thegreat wave of life never ceases for a moment, but widens and thickens, and wheelsbehind us, until the whole sky is pitted with their bodies. I take picture afterpicture, with the ground glass reveahng myriads of swiftly moving birds. Wecount those in one short Hne near us, and find there are 420 individuals. It isimpossible to count the whole number, but there must be at least fifteen or twenty. LAGOON AND SAVANNA FROM THE BUNGALOW thousand in the first great flock of Ducks which we encounter. Little by littlethe Ducks settle down on the savanna, and soon nothing is visible except hundredsof their heads and necks stretched high, and all watching us curiously. Thesebirds are Tree-ducks only in name, as next month hundreds of eggs will be foundscattered all over the savanna, and the flocks will gradually dissolve into pairs,each to nest on some sheltered hummock in jthe marsh. In the course of thetrip, we pass several such masses of Ducks as I have described, while smallerflocks of several hundred are constantly passing overhead. Now and then wehear a louder whistle of wings, and a family of four or five great black MuscovyDucks^ rushes past, the leader, a drake, being almost twice the size of the low line of shrubs and small trees appears along the right bank of the narrowv/inding river, in which Great Kiskadee Flycatchers^ are nesting every hundredyards
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectbirds, booksubjectorn
