30 
WILD WINGS 
admiring him, and screwing up my photographic apparatus, 
he never moved, nor did he at the critical moments of ex¬ 
posure. Then, as I would stir him up a bit, he retreated out 
to a branch, where he stood like a statue or obelisk, showing 
his high l)reeding in every inch of his splendid stature, while 
I again took his picture, after which 1 gratefully bade him 
farewell. 
Not so well-bred were a trio in a neighboring nest, about 
half grown. These were of the sulky sort, and obstinately 
lay down, refusing to stand, in spite of all I could do, though 
the guide climbed up and did his best to make them behave. 
Another nest with two very young fledglings also gave me 
trouble. There was no point of vantage, save from almost 
directly above ; it was in the shade, and the breeze was sway¬ 
ing everything, and the youngsters, as is the way with small 
feathered fry, were squirming about like worms. However, 
I conquered them, and then climbed to a rather lofty nest, 
near by, of the Ward’s Heron, — a species thought by some 
to be only a peninsular race of the familiar Great Blue Heron, 
— whose two youthful inmates were very ferocious, and 
spent their time making vicious lunges at me with their 
bills, accomjDanied by the harshest expletives of the heron 
tongue. I did not catch sight of their parents, but now 
and then a Great White Heron flaj^ped warily overhead at 
a safe distance, to reconnoitre. What an aggravation it is 
to photograph a flying snow-white heron against a clear Idue 
sky, and find that as both cannot be white, it is the heron 
that has to be falsely portrayed as black ! 
Having secured another, and nameless, vessel, no better 
than the Maggie, as it proved, except that it was of lighter 
draught, we started oft for a general exploration of the inac¬ 
cessible keys of the inner bays. First, however, we sailed 
westward to Sandy Key. Though the guide said there were 
