26 
WILD WINGS 
The two former flew directly away ; the Man-o’-War Birds, 
separating from the others, rose higher and higher in a flock, 
and on almost motionless wings floated over our heads, giving 
me a couple more pictures. 
Eager to see the nests, we pushed the boat across the 
narrow channel that, as usual, ran close around the island, 
and forced our way in through the tangle of mangrove roots 
and branches. Everything was fllthy with dropj^ings, and 
great was our surprise and disappointment to find that the 
birds were not nesting. That they resorted there habitually, 
however, was evident enough. We learned afterwards that 
it was a regular roosting-place. The birds, though now dis¬ 
persed, we saw return that evening in much greater numbers, 
and when we sailed by here a week or more later, at dusk, 
there were hundreds of them, on the trees and hovering. 
Ever since he had known the region, the guide said, this had 
been the principal resort of these Ifirds in that vicinitv, and, 
inasmuch as all water-birds are very tenacious of their resorts, 
it is more than probaljle that it was here Audubon came on 
his second-day’s excursion, and found the Man-o’-\\’^ar Birds. 
Before leaving the island I climbed to and examined a great 
eagle’s nest in one of the larger trees. 
It was not till sundown that we were able to warp the schooner 
out of her sticky resting-place and bid adieu to the returning 
flocks of night lodgers on Bow-leg Key. sailed along, 
dodging shoals, or scraping over them, until about nine 
o’clock, when we ran aground again. stayed there till 
davlight, but then got off easily, managing that day to keep 
afloat. The wind was light, and we worked leisurely along, 
seeing a big turtle now and then floating on the surface 
of the water, and an occasional sea-bird, one of these being 
a Parasitic Jaeger. In the afternoon we passed Sandy Key, 
the farthest point that Audubon reached. A few individuals 
