,4 BOTANICAL EXCURSION TO THE BIG CYPRESS 



491 



to the Caloosahatehee. Unfortunately, a 

 road had been laid out to connect Palmdale 

 with Labelle. It is well we decided to stop 

 at Palmdale until daylight, for although 

 we could travel the almost trackless prairie 

 in the dark with ease, we could barely tra- 

 verse this new road in broad daylight. The 

 deep sand had become very loose, and it 

 took more than the engine to get the cars 

 over a good many miles of the road. 



Just south of Palmdale we crossed Fish- 

 eating Creek, which is an exceedingly pic- 

 turesque stream meandering through the al- 

 most uninhabited prairie, between banks 

 either exposed to the sun, or clothed with 

 shrubs and bright-colored asters or ham- 

 mocks of oaks, ash, and maple, which in 

 some places give way to groves of palmettos 

 that often lean far over the water's edge. 

 After leaving the hammocks which border 

 the creek we drove out on the prairie again, 

 and few trees came into view for a distance 

 of about eighteen miles, until the hammocks 

 bordering the Caloosahatehee appeared. 



Perhaps the most interesting creature on 

 these prairies was the burrowing owl. This 

 bird had honeycombed the prairie in many 

 places with its burrows. These tunnels, 

 often six to eight feet long, are about a foot 

 beneath the surface of the sand. At one 

 end is an opening approximately six inches 

 in diameter, while at the other end is a nest. 

 The old owls were so tame that one could 

 almost pick them up, and often they would 

 sit perfectly quiet while the automobiles 

 passed them at a distance of not more than 

 two feet. 1 



On this same prairie many interesting 



1 Out of curiosity we decided to dig into one 

 of the burrows. Starting at the opening, we began 

 by lifting the sand out very carefully. Of a sud- 

 den we were startled by the rattle of a rattle- 

 snake. After proceeding a few inches farther 

 we heard two rattlesnakes ; before going much 

 farther into the burrow a third rattlesnake be- 

 gan to rattle. The digging became more exciting 

 as we worked farther in and as the snakes rattled 

 more loudly. When we neared the end of the 

 burrow we cautioned one another to be careful 

 not to get our hands too close to the snakes. 



This seemed to be an excellent opportunity to 

 get good photographs of living rattlesnakes. Con- 

 sequently the camera was set up and everything 

 prepared for the opening of the end of the bur- 

 row. As there was no woody growth on the 

 prairie the question of getting sticks with which 

 to fight the snakes arose. After considerable 

 search several surveyor's stakes were found, and 

 with these we prepared nooses for capturing the 

 serpents alive. With extreme caution we ap- 

 proached the end of the burrow; the Bnakes 

 began to rattle more viciously. Finally the 

 sand was removed from the top of the end of 



plants were observed and collected. Milk- 

 weeds were represented by species of As- 

 clepias and Asclepiodora, while more con- 

 spicuous was the purple water willow (Di- 

 li nthera crassifolia). Low milkworts (Poly- 

 galas) with white and yellow flowers were 

 prominent in the landscape, and clumps of 

 the native beardtongue (Pentstemon multi- 

 florus) towered above all the other her- 

 baceous plants. There a white-flowered 

 heliotrope replaced the common yellow- 

 flowered heliotrope of the region lying east 

 of the Okeechobee basin and the Everglades. 



After contending with the sand for 

 several hours we reached the Caloosahatehee 

 River and came to the town of Labelle, 

 where we did not delay, but went directly 

 up the Caloosahatehee several miles to Fort 

 Thompson. There we found a number of 

 magnificent live oaks around the old bar- 

 racks which date from the period of the 

 Seminole wars. After making a number of 

 photographs in that region we returned to 

 Labelle and at once started down the south 

 bank of the Caloosahatehee River for Fort 

 Myers. 



We now left the prairies behind and en- 

 tered the flatwoods, where the arboreous 

 vegetation is made up almost entirely of 

 pine trees. Peninsular Florida, especially the 

 southern part, lacks what is ordinarily 

 understood as altitudes, in fact, most of it is 

 decidedly flat. It might well be called a 

 large sand bar. Notwithstanding this dis- 

 advantage, it reveals an astonishing number 

 of surprises in the matter of diversity. 

 The Big Cypress is one of the larger sur- 

 prises. Its area is about half that of the 



the burrow, and to our surprise we found four 

 young owls, three large and one small, but — no 

 snakes ! 



It was the three larger owls that were making 

 the noise of a rattlesnake, and imitating it so 

 well that all of us who had had personal ex- 

 perience with rattlesnakes were deceived. We 

 decided that this experience proved that the stories 

 we used to hear of owls, prairie dogs, and rattle- 

 snakes living peacefully together in the same bur- 

 row were fantastic. Of course, a rattlesnake 

 might enter an owl's burrow, 'either to seek 

 shelter or food ; but it is a difficult matter for 

 any one well acquainted with the habits of 

 rattlesnakes to believe that a husky rattler would 

 be considerate and restrain his appetite, with 

 such a tempting morsel as a young owl or young 

 prairie dog lying about in his den. (For further 

 notes on this subject see: The American Natural- 

 ist, Vol. XLI, pp. 725-726; Vol. XLIII, pp. 754- 

 55; Birds of the World, pp. 536-37.) After 

 photographing owls instead of rattlesnakes, we re- 

 placed them in their nest and rebuilt their burrow, 

 as well as we could, by making a roof of brush 

 over which we replaced the sand. 



