CHAPTER VI 
SCAVENGERS OF THE SOUTH 
Circles and sails aloft, on pinions majestic, the vulture. 
l>ONGFELLO\V. 
W ARM was the Florida sunshine and the soft cypress- 
scented breeze that clear April morning- over the 
great Jane Green Swamp. On the lonely prairie 
beyond its confines herds of half-wild cattle grazed serenely. 
Out on the islets of the immense adjoining marsh that formed 
the head waters of the St. John’s River the Ward’s Herons 
and several others of this tribe had built their rude stick nests 
in the willows, or were laying their bluish-green eggs; while 
the Snake-birds, with their peculiar long necks and rudder 
tails, perched lazily upon their roosts over the water, ready 
for a plunge after the first venturesome fish that might rise 
