THE OOLOGIST 



289 



birds were seen excepting Kingfishes 

 and Water Turkeys until we passed 

 Fort Thompson the end of the River, 

 and the beginning of a 40 mile canal 

 running through the fiooded marshes 

 and Lake Flirt. Bonnet Lake and 

 Lake Aicopogee and then into Lake 

 Okeechobee. After leaving Fort 

 Thompson large flocks of White Ivis, 

 all the Herons and Egrets, Gallinules, 

 Coots, Bitterns, Blackbirds were to be 

 seen at all times until we reached 

 Lake Okeechobee. Sanhill Cranes 

 were heard now for the first time 

 trumpeting in the adjacent marshes 

 and occasionally a bunch of a dozen or 

 more would rise in the air with a 

 great noise and go sailing off, a very 

 shy bird this, but one of the most in- 

 teresting to study. While passing 

 through Lake Flirt I saw my first 

 Swallow Tailed Kites for the trip. 

 I'Our of these most handsome and 

 graceful "Forked-Tailed Fish-Hawks,' 

 (their local name here) kept sailing 

 over our boat for several hours and 

 it is beyond me to describe their won- 

 derful and graceful antics in the air. 

 I saw them catching wasps on the 

 wing. These birds are becoming scar- 

 cer yearly and it wont be long before 

 they are in the missing column. I 

 have heard of one licensed Hog com- 

 ing down here earlier in the Winter 

 end collecting 22 of these fine birds for 

 pcientific (spare the word) purposes. 

 However he will never get another 

 license to collect in Florida as we 

 have the "dope" on him now. 



After crossing Lake Chicapogee we 

 entered a canal leading to Lake Okee- 

 chobee and now we could see the real 

 saw grass, as far as the eye could 

 see, nothing but vast sea of saw grass 

 -resembling in color a half ripened 

 wheat field waving in the wind. This 

 is murderous grass alright and true 

 to its name and to penetrate in any 

 distance requires j^rijt, jit \^ from ankle 



deep in mud and water to passed one's 

 armpits and snakes, snakes, every- 

 where, and the nasty Cotton Mouth 

 Moccasin at that. After a few excur- 

 sions into it I would pass it up for 

 anything but the mysteries of a Cary 

 Bittern or Everglade Kite's nest. The 

 saw grass abounds in snakes, frogs, 

 frogs and aligators and is the feeding 

 grounds of Ibis, Herons, and in fact 

 all birds of this character, which con- 

 gregate here by the thousands. 



The canal enters Lake Okeechobee 

 l:y a large flat topped cypress "the 

 lone sentinel of the Lake" and camp- 

 ing here for the night I experienced 

 the first real trouble. This is, I guess, 

 mosquito factory for the world and to 

 (ook in a closed cabin was an almost 

 impossibility and I took to my mos- 

 quito bar at once. This was invari- 

 ably the case at night during my whole 

 trip and on three occasions during 

 the day 1 had to seek the shelter of 

 the net. 



Lake Okeecliobee is a wonderful 

 body of water, 70 miles long by about 

 50 wide, it looks like a real Ocean and 

 in the canoe, 1 was several times out 

 ol sight of land. I left the launch 

 here and taking the canoe I struck 

 out on a trip by myself for exploring 

 the lake and everglades. 1 pushed up 

 every canal, river, creek, slough, bay 

 or ditch around the Lake, penetrating 

 south into the sawgrass as far as pos- 

 sible and in all covered about 300 

 miles in this way. On one occasion 

 was eight days without seeing a white 

 man. It was lonely alright but being 

 all new to me, never noticed the lack 

 of human company for did I not have 

 the better company of Nature's chil- 

 dren? Birds were everywhere feed- 

 ing and flying, very few were nesting 

 at this time but saw migrants on their 

 vT^ay north. Next to snakes in abund- 

 ance were the frogs and to them I 

 ana indebted for most pf my fresh 



