244 



THE MUSEUM. 



On the first of March I entered the 

 Everglades, accompanied by Mr. Hen- 

 shaw; then we were in search of An- 

 hingas, and as they were very shy and 

 difficult to procure, I concluded to use 

 strategem to get a shot at them. 



Therefore my companion landed me 

 in a small cypress island to the right 

 of the main stream, where I concealed 

 myself beneath a tree that was thickly 

 hung with long streamers of Spanish 

 Moss. My companion then rowed up 

 the river for the purpose of driving the 

 Snake Biros down and as they were 

 accustomed to alight on the trees on 

 the island, they would be within 

 range of my gun. After a time several 

 came down as expected, and I had 

 killed one when I heard the report of 

 my friend's gun. I had wondered 

 what he had killed when he appeared 

 with a beaming countenance. 



He pushed the prow of the skiff in- 

 to the reeds that grew at my feet and 

 in reply to my question "What have 

 you got.-^" held up a Kite that I recog- 

 nized at once as the same species that 

 I had vainly endeavored to obtain up- 

 on a former visit to this place. It 

 was an adult male and Mr. Henshaw 

 stated that he had seen another. 



Upon hearing this the Anhingas 

 were forgotten and leaping into the 

 boat we pushed off. As we approach- 

 ed the spot where 1 had seen the bird 

 before we perceived one sitting on a 

 bush. By carefully pushing along the 

 marshy banks of the tortous stream 

 under cover of the high grass, we 

 came within gunshot, and a second 

 Kite was given its death struggle in 

 the top of the bush. Just at this 

 moment we saw another coming, and 

 its attention being attracted by the 

 motions of the one already shot, it 



hovered over it a moment, then as it 

 received a charge of shot sailed grace- 

 fully downward and fell in the dense 

 grass only a short distance from us. 



I immediately left the boat, entered 

 the grass, sinking to my knees in water 

 and thus easily secured the first Kite 

 that proved to be another adult male. 

 The second required a longer search 

 and I experienced considerable diffi- 

 culty in making my way through the 

 dense growth of grass upon such an 

 insecure footing, for the bottom was 

 not only submerged but also quite 

 spongy. After a time, however, I 

 found the Kite, and was turning to go 

 back when I discovered a partly com- 

 pleted nest a short distance from me 

 that was without doubt owned by one 

 of the birds just killed. It was small, 

 flat in form, composed of sticks some- 

 what carelessly arranged, and was 

 placed on the top of the grass which 

 supported it and which grew so luxur- 

 iantly at this point that it bore me up 

 as I was endeavoring to reach the nest. 



Although disappointed at not ob- 

 taining eggs, we were much pleased 

 at having procured three birds, the 

 last of which proved to be a young 

 male. 



The 24th of March found Mr. Hen- 

 shaw and myself once more in the 

 Everglades searching for Kites. We 

 had killed two males and a female, 

 when upon picking up the latter I 

 found she was incubating. Before 

 shooting her she had behaved strangly, 

 and I was certain she had eggs near, 

 therefore I commenced a long, sys- 

 tematic search during which time I 

 was obliged to exercise great caution 

 to avoid treading upon water mocca- 

 sins, for they were very abundant, but 

 at last I discovered the nest in a mag- 



