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THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



tropical vegetation. Here one passes 

 through pretty villages, citrus groves 

 and pineapple plantations. At Cocoa, 

 on the west bank of the river, we found 

 the ducks congregated in large num- 

 bers. Here for several years past dur- 

 ing the winter months certain persons 

 have become interested in these birds, 

 and a flock of from fifty to several hun- 

 dred may be seen daily near the bridge 

 by the bank building, where they are 

 regularly fed by these people. Both 

 here and at Daytona we were able to 

 call small flocks of these ducks across 

 the water in answer to our whistling, 

 when they would come — shyly at first, 

 then more boldly — to feed upon the 

 bread crumbs and other scraps which 

 we threw out to them. I noticed in 

 these instances that the ducks were 

 much less shy than the drakes. 



In some places we passed through 

 flocks in our launch which, by careful 

 estimates, I judged contained as many 

 as ten thousand birds. Often these 

 masses would simply divide, making 

 a wide passage for our boat, when they 

 would scuttle along low over the water 

 with a great whirring sound. 



Through the sixty-one mile canal 

 from Ft. Lauderdale to Lake Okeecho- 

 bee in the Everglades we saw but one 

 lone duck. On the big lake, while 

 there were immense flocks of coot, but 

 few of the ducks were noted, although 

 we saw many thousands of them on 

 the waters (or more properly speaking, 

 the liquid mud) of Lake Hicpochee 

 and Lake Flirt. This was in the latter 

 part of December. Their numbers 

 grew gradually less as we passed 

 through the waterways to the west 

 coast, and we noted a conspicuous ab- 

 sence of scaup ducks along the borders 

 of the Gulf of Mexico and in the har- 

 bors and bays of the towns along the 

 west Florida coast on our trip north- 

 ward. 



It is beautiful to attain the quiet life, 

 the simple life, like Burroughs in a 

 country cottage, or like Thoreau in a 

 cabin in the wilderness. But it is still 

 more beautiful to be able to attain the 

 quiet life, the simple life, mixed with 

 the crash of city activities, surrounded 

 by the hurry of the mart and the grind 

 of the office. — -"The Columbus Medical 

 Journal," Columbus, Ohio. 



FEEDING THE SCAUPS AT COCOA, FJ.OKli;A. 



