in the Peninsula of Florida. 205 



them when found. They probably breed in swamps, at or near 

 the top of a lofty cypress with a bole far too thick for a man to 

 encircle^ perfectly smooth, and without a branch for fifty or sixty 

 feet from the ground. It would then rest with you either to 

 devise some means to get up yourself, or (what would be far 

 more difficult) to induce a negro to undertake this task, and to 

 teach him how to set about it. The probability is, that the 

 young birds would be hatched and flown before you had succeeded 

 in reaching the nest. 



The fishing was tolerably successful. The baits used were 

 living or dead fishes. A good number of various species of 

 Perch were caught — blue, red-bellied, and black. The latter 

 attain a weight of four or five pounds, and are called " Trout." 

 All were beautiful fish and good for the " pan," as the term in 

 use here expresses it. We lit a camp-fire and cooked them, and 

 they proved excellent. The waters of Florida abound with fish, 

 and the varieties seem to be endless. The Cat-fishes {Pimelodes) 

 are generally dispersed over the North American continent, both 

 in fresh and salt water. I recollect catching them on the 

 Pacific coast of Central America ; and they abound in Florida, 

 and are often of a large size. While the ' Darlington ' was lying 

 at Pilatka, I saw a man hook one which must have weighed 

 20 pounds. It was like a rock on the line. He hauled it up 

 to the surface, but lost it in trying to lift it out. These fishes 

 are in little estimation for the " pan," though the negroes eat 

 them. The negroes, however, are not particular, and no doubt 

 a Cat-fish is as good as a " -"possum." 



It came on to rain heavily as soon as we had finished our meal 

 The storm lasted nearly two hours. We then got home just in 

 time to escape another storm, which set in about sunset and 

 lasted well into the night. The next day I obtained a specimen 

 of Bonaparte's Gull, which I shot while it was running along the 

 shore of the river. About the 16th of April Night-Hawks ap- 

 peared ; they were plentiful and easily obtained. They fly about 

 hke swallows an hour or two before sunset. I often saw twenty 

 or thirty together. In my notes on the Birds of Honduras 

 ('Ibis,' vol. ii. p. 114), under the head of " N7/ctidromus," I men- 

 tion seeing some hundreds of birds hunting moths in the evening. 



