274 Mr Audubon^s Ohservatimis on the 



htmk of the lesser ibis is heard from different parts, as they rise 

 from the puddles that supply them with cray-fishes. At last the 

 opening of the lake is seen ; it has now become necessary to drag 

 one's-self along through the deep mud, making the best of the 

 way, with the head bent, through the small brushy growth, 

 caring about nought but the lock of your gun. The long nar- 

 row Indian canoe kept to hunt those lakes, and taken into them 

 during the fresh, is soon launched, and the party seated in the 

 bottom is paddled or poled in search of water-game. There, at 

 a sight, hundreds of alligators are seen dispersed over all the 

 lake, their head, and all the upper part of the body, floating 

 like a log, and, in many instances, so resembling one, that it re- 

 quires to be accustomed to see them to know the distinction. 

 Millions of the large wood-ibis are seen wading through the 

 water, mudding it up, and striking deadly blows with their bills 

 on the fish within. Here are a hoard of blue herons, — the sand- 

 hill-crane rises with his hoarse note,— the snake-birds are p£rch- 

 ed here and there on the dead timber of the trees, — the cormo- 

 rants are fishing, — ^buzzards and carion-crows exhibit a mourn- 

 ing train, patiently waiting for the water to dry and leave food 

 for them, — and far in the horizon the eagle overtakes a devoted 

 wood-duck, singled from the clouded flocks that have been bred 

 there. It is then that you see and hear the alligator at his work, 

 —each lake has a spot deeper than the rest, rendered so by 

 those animals who work at it, and always situate at the lower 

 end of the lake near the connecting bayous, that, as drainers, 

 pass through all those lakes, and discharge sometimes many 

 miles below where the water had made its entrance abore, there- 

 by ensuring to themselves water as long as any will remain. 

 This is called by the hunters the Alligator's Hole. You see 

 them there lying close together. The fish that are already dying 

 by thousands, through the insufferable heat and stench of the 

 water, and the wounds of the different winged enemies constant- 

 ly in pursuit of them, resort to the Alligator's Hole to receive re- 

 freshment, with a hope of finding security also, and follow down 

 the little currents flowing through the connecting sluices : but, 

 no ! for, as the water recedes in the lake, they are here con^ 

 fined. The alligators thrash them and devour them whenever 

 they feel hungry, while the ibis destroys all that make towards 



