The Audubon Societies 



247 



interesting, with the two Cranes dancing 

 and jumping, apparently v^ying with the 

 dog for honors and applause. There is a 

 gray squirrel that takes great pleasure 

 in teasing the Cranes. He chatters to 

 them in mischievous delight, and runs 

 down the trunk of the tree, where Betty 

 and Dixie stand playing hide-and-seek. 

 He taunts them by leaving the tree and 

 darting across the ground to a palm, where 

 he makes the fronds rattle and shake, 

 then back again to his quarters in the 

 hickory. 



Last winter we had as Christmas guests 

 six Seminole Indians from the Ever- 

 glades. In the party were Martha Tiger, 

 a very old squaw, and her two grand- 

 children, youngest descendants of the 

 heroic old chieftan, Tallahassee. Wilson 

 Tiger and Lewis Tucker were also here, 

 escorted by Chief Billie Bowlegs, who 

 acted as friendly guide and interpreter. 



The Cranes insisted upon being with 

 this forest group, and, on several occa- 

 sions, when the library was full of visitors 

 who had come to see and meet the Sem- 

 inoles, Betty and Dixie showed a determ- 

 ination to be in the room also. As quickly 

 as they were driven out, back they would 

 come. Did they recognize in these wilder- 

 ness people a comradeship for their 

 native haunts? Did they long to be back 

 in the Everglade country? 



The march of civilization has made 

 sad havoc with the large numbers of 

 Sandhill Cranes that once belonged to 

 the Florida prairies. They have been 

 systematically shot for food and for 

 so-called sport, and only occasional!}- 

 are these beautiful and sensible birds 

 seen now in the more thickly settled dis- 

 tricts; and unless better protection is given 

 these Cranes are doomed to speedy exter- 

 mination in Florida. 



