THE SHORE PATROL 219 



westerly wind kept increasing, and by eleven o'clock the situ- 

 ation was alarming. The waves were making a clean breach 

 over us. My precious box of photographic plates was in the 

 middle of the boat, propped up on a kettle and a coffee-pot 

 to keep them out of the swashing water, and covered with 

 a rubber cloth above. Finally, up spake Bradley : " Mr. Job, 

 I don't want to take the responsibility for your life ; suppose 

 we run back and anchor behind those keys till we have better 

 weather." But time was very valuable, and I urged him to 

 take the chances, so we kept on, and, after a hard fight, by 

 early afternoon reached the next keys to windward, — two 

 small mangrove islets, one of them with a narrow sand-beach 

 around it, close up to the thicket, with small sand-bars at 

 one end just across a narrow channel that closely approached 

 the shore. As we sailed near, I saw that these sands were fairly 

 alive with shore-birds, feeding and taking refuge from the 

 gale. 



Immediately I recognized this as a great opportunity, 

 and, landing upon the key, despite the swarms of mosquitoes, 

 I went to work. Up at the farther end were the most birds, 

 and, creeping up, I peered through the bushes. Within from 

 ten to twenty feet of me were a sprinkling of minor waders, 

 a fine flock of some twenty Black-bellied Plovers, and a few 

 Laughing Gulls. I wish I could have photographed the 

 gulls, yet I am sorry they were there, for while I was trying 

 to clear a "window" through the mangrove shrubbery out 

 of which to aim the camera, they saw me and set up such 

 a screaming, as they departed, that they took with them all 

 the other birds. 



However, standing knee-deep in the water, I finished my 

 work and set up the camera on the tripod, and focused on 

 the sand-bar. No sooner had I done this than many of the 

 birds began to come back, — various sandpipers, Dowitchers, 



