ON LONELY BIRD KEY 
85 
guide had received an appointment as game-warden, to 
camp alone on Bird Key and protect the feathered multi¬ 
tudes through their nesting-season, now beginning. 
It was an elegant bright day, with the usual fresh north¬ 
east trade-wind. We reached the fort early in the afternoon, 
whence, through the kindness of the keeper of the light- 
SOOTY TERNS. “ALONE AMONG THE BIRDS” 
house on Loggerhead Key, we secured passage to Bird Key, 
only a mile away, in a small sail-boat, with our skiff in tow. 
He left us, bag and baggage, upon a dilapidated little pier, 
alone among the birds. As we had approached the islet, 
the chorus of shrill cries had grown louder and louder, and 
the fluttering of wings more and more apparent. Now birds 
were rising into the air in countless swarms, with outcries 
that were almost overpowering in their shrillness and volume. 
We had fairly to shriek at one another to be heard at all. It 
was Tuesday, and until the next trip of the tug, on Saturday 
