Vol. Xxn Bent, Nestimr Habits of Florida Herodioiies. 2 1 



to three feet deep, with a treacherous muddy bottom, making 

 wading impossible. The marsh consists of broad areas of saw 

 grass among which are numerous tortuous channels overgrown 

 with a rank growth of coarse yellow pond lilies, locally known as 

 ' bonnets,' through which we had to navigate by laboriously 

 poling a shallow, pointed skiff. The channels are still further 

 choked by small floating islands, made up of bushes and rank 

 aquatic vegetation, which drift about more or less with the 

 changes of the wind. There are also many permanent islands 

 overgrown with willows which serve as rookeries for thousands 

 of Louisiana Herons, Little Blue Herons, Anhingas, and a few 

 Snowy, Black-crowned and Yellow-crowned Night Herons. Least 

 Bitterns, Red-winged Blackbirds and Boat-tailed Grackles nest 

 in the saw grass, Coots, Purple and Florida Gallinules, frequent 

 the ' bonnets,' and large flocks of White Ibises, Wood Ibises, 

 Cormorants and a few Glossy Ibises fly back and forth over the 

 marshes, especially at morning and evening. 



The season of 1903 was spent in the extreme southern part 

 of the State, cruising in a small schooner from Miami to Cape 

 Sable, visiting nearly all of the keys and making several trips 

 inland to the southern edge of the everglades in Monroe County. 



The whole of the Bay of Florida, from the outer keys to the 

 mainland, is extremely shallow, so that cruising in a boat drawing 

 more than three feet of water is out of the question ; I should say 

 that fully one half of the bay would average less than three feet 

 deep ; the bottom is covered with soft, slimy, whitish mud which 

 discolors the water and at certain times makes it quite opaque. 

 There are three types of keys in this region, mud keys, sand 

 keys, and coral keys. The mud keys are by far the commonest 

 type, the natural result of the prevailing conditions, and they are 

 constantly increasing in size and number. They owe their origin 

 and their increase to the agency of the red mangroves and their 

 long-tailed seeds, which float about until they find a foothold in 

 the mud where they germinate and grow to maturity, spreading 

 out from year to year over more and more territory until an incip- 

 ient key is formed. This incipient key is locally known as a 

 ' bush,' having no dry land under it, the trees growing in water 

 from one to three feet deep. As the key grows older and dry 



