AMONG THE FLORIDA KEYS 
21 
exquisite pale emerald green of such wonderful intensity and 
brilliance, the critic would surely declare it exaggerated and 
unnatural. Overhead sailed the Frigate Pelican, or Man-o’- 
W^ar Bird, that wonder¬ 
ful aeronaut of tropical 
waters, while the Brown 
Pelican flapped along or 
plunged into the brine 
after the fish. Then we 
anchored for the night 
at Caesar’s Creek, the last 
channel for many a mile 
out into the open sea. 
J list as we did so, a great 
dark bird of prey, that I 
took to be a Caracara 
Eagle, flew directly over 
us, seemingly almost 
minded to alight upon 
the mast-head. Then fol¬ 
lowed a pull in the skiff 
along the mangrove 
thickets at the edge of 
the keys, where I noted various herons and numbers of migra- 
torv Pigeon Falcons, as well as many small birds. 
A study of the coast-chart was now illuminating to us as 
it had never been before. Here was the outer chain of long, 
narrow islands forming a parallel breakwater for the Florida 
coast from Miami away out beyond Key West, some two 
hundred miles. These were of another type from the little 
round mangrove keys of mud in that they were originally 
coral reefs, upon which soil had been deposited. They are 
now densely wooded, and are used for the cultivation of 
“the man-o’-war bird, that wonderful 
AERONAUT OF TROPICAL WATERS” 
