12 



the neighborhood of Indian River, and which may be considered 

 as the commencement of the everglades, and are apparently most 

 favorable to the peculiar habits of the Courlan. The part of Flo- 

 rida in which it has been my good fortune to meet with it has 

 been on the St. Johns and waters connected with it, between 

 Lake Harney on the south and Lake George on the north. 

 Above the former lake I did not ascend the river, in consequence 

 of the troubles with the Seminoles ; and below Lake George the 

 country is so much more thickly settled that I did not think it 

 worth while to examine this portion, though I have no doubt that 

 it would be met with on Dunn's lake. From the banks of the 

 river between Lake George and Lake Harney being almost en- 

 tirely uninhabited, and never disturbed by steamboats, I expected 

 that this part of the country would afford me abundant opportu- 

 nities for studying the habits of this bird. My disappointment 

 was great at finding this to be by no means the case, principally 

 from the river being deep and narrow, and presenting but few of 

 those shallow enlargements which are its peculiar characteristic. 

 I saw only a single specimen of this bird here, and heard but a 

 few others. On descending the river, I first met with it at the 

 Wikiva, a narrow stream running into the St. Johns about twenty- 

 five miles from Enterprise. I shot a pair here, but could not get 

 them, as the river was entirely covered by the water-lettuce, as 

 it is called. From the Wikiva I found them more and more 

 numerous as I descended the river, wherever the locality was 

 suited to their habits, until I arrived at Spring Garden Lake, 

 where they were much more numerous than I have ever seen 

 them elsewhere. This lake is considered by Audubon as their 

 most northern locality, and may in a general way be so consid- 

 ered, though I killed a pair near the entrance of Lake George. 

 Lake Dexter, as it is also called, is a large sheet of water that might 

 be taken as the model of the shallow enlargements so frequent in 

 the upper part of the St. Johns. Its surface is covered for hun- 

 dreds of acres with tangled masses of floating aquatic herbs, pre- 

 senting in every direction narrow and crooked channels so intri- 

 cate as to be impassable for any animal less amphibious than an 

 alligator. 



The Courlan is generally seen standing on the edge of the shore, 

 or else on the nympheae or other broad-leaved plants which are 



