50 BIRDS 



the noise of the coming and going of the feeding birds, 

 and you have a true picture with a jungle setting. (Fig. 



8-) 



I soon learned not to set up my tent or to stand di- 

 rectly underneath a nest full of young Herons or Cormo- 

 rants. It is decidedly unsanitary and unwholesome to 

 do so. 



Even one's usual dread of poisonous reptiles is, in 

 a measure, overcome by his eagerness to picture some 

 of these birds. Such was my experience while making 

 the Anhinga picture. While I was in the blind of pal- 

 mettoes, with my rubber-boot encased feet and legs buried 

 in the mud to my knees, a large water moccasin slowly 

 crawled within a few inches of my leg and a twelve-foot 

 alligator sunned himself close by on a mud bank. I se- 

 cured the Anhinga pictures by keeping still. 



