98



Correspondence.



learned to intersperse their natural food with wheat, corn, and scraps from the

table. How much insect-food they would consume if left entirely to their own

devices it is difficult to say. When the wheat-can hanging from a wire on the

back verandah is empty, a message is quickly telephoned to the housekeeper, by

a petulant ringing of the can, which unmistakably means ‘empty dinner-pail.’


During the tourist-season, Betty and Dixie are much in the lime-light.

They have developed a certain amount of vanity, and seem to understand the

exclamations of praise and admiration given by visitors, who frequently stop

at the fence to admire them.


The use of kodaks they look upon as qnite proper, and stand with a dignity

that is very gratifying to the photographer. They have learned, at the behest

of their master, to carol a greeting, as many times as it is requested ; and their

dancing is no longer the hesitation nor the turkey-trot, but the real, rioting,

Kissimmee prairie-dance, bowing and running with widely outstretched wings,

circling, jumping, and then darting back to their master for new orders and a

piece of moss. This they throw into the air and catch, and then dance about

again with great animation.


When these performances begin, Efan, the ambitious collie, hurries for

his ball and bat, and the scene becomes most interesting, with the two cranes

dancing and jumpiing, apparently vying with the dog for honours and applause.

There is a grey 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

Everglades. In the party were Martha Tiger, a very old squaw, and her two

grandchildren, youngest descendants of the heroic old chieftan, Teliahassee.

Wilson Tiger and Lewis Tucker were also here, escorted by Chief Billy Bowlegs,

who acted as friendly guide and interpreter.


The cranes insisted upon being with this forest group, and, on several

occasions, when the library was full of visitors who had come to see and meet

the Seminoles, Betty and Dixie showed a determination to be in the room also.

As quickly as they were driven out, back they would come. Did they recognize

in these wilderness 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 occasionally are

these beautiful and sensible birds seen now in the more thickly settled districts ;

and unless better protection is given, these cranes are doomed to speedy exter¬

mination in Florida.



