ADULT LITTLE BLUE HERON, FROM THE BOAT 



CHAPTER IV 



THE GREAT CUTHBERT ROOKERY 



For this outrage I heard the poor bird 



Say a thousand mournful things 

 To the wind, which, on its wings, 



To the guardian of the sky 

 Bore her melancholy cry. 



De Villegas, translated. 



ABOUT fifteen years ago it was known to the plume- 

 hunters that somewhere in the great mangrove swamp 

 ^ near the southern extremity of Florida was a very 

 large rookery, or breeding colony, of herons, egrets, and 

 other water-birds. Hitherto all efforts to locate it had proved 

 unavailing — a fact which will surprise no one who has been 

 even to the portals of that terrible wilderness. At length, 

 an individual named Cuthbert, with a hardihood worthy of 

 a better cause, made a business of tracing out this mysterious 



