8 Kennard, On the Trail of the Ivory-bill. [j an- 



beyond. Even here the going was not any too easy; the cypress 

 trees were very tall and I had an attack of cold feet every time I 

 thought of the job I had before me, if by any chance I should 

 happen to be lucky enough to discover that needle in a haystack, 

 an Ivory-bill's nest, in the top of one of those trees. 



We camped here until March 1st, sleeping by preference on the 

 piazza, and out of reach of the elements and things that crawl. 

 Game was plenty, fine water in a cistern by the house, and the 

 ever present grapefruit, with which to assuage our thirst. 



The only drawback was the sickness of one of Peter's oxen, 

 which came very near dying, poisoned apparently by something 

 it had eaten ; and the loss of which might, we were afraid, seriously 

 handicap our expedition. It seems there is something that grows 

 hereabouts, which if eaten by the cattle is apt to cause them to 

 sicken and die, and which invariably seems to kill the calves. The 

 cattle men have, on this account, not yet invaded this country. 



Pigs, too, find it unhealthy, as the bear and panther are apt to 

 make away with them; and a "cracker" has little use for a region 

 that is neither healthy for cattle nor pigs. 



The country is too difficult of access for the average sportsman, 

 so that with the exception of a few Seminoles and an occasional 

 alligator hunter or a few "crackers," who are "hiding out," the 

 region is practically uninhabited, and one of the finest natural 

 game preserves I have ever visited. 



Deer, turkey and quail abound. Signs of bear were all about us, 

 and some of them big ones too; their tracks where they lumbered 

 through the swamps and the marks where they had sharpened 

 their claws on the cabbage palms, not infrequently helping them- 

 selves to the very edible buds thereof. Peter, late one afternoon, 

 found a nest where an old she bear had very recently had her cubs 

 in some brakes on a cabbage hammock in the swamp, about half a 

 mile from camp. 



On the 20th we hunted unsuccessfully all day for signs of Ivory- 

 bills, but it was not until the afternoon of the 21st, while Peter and 

 I were off hunting in another part of the swamp, that Tom, who was 

 on the watch in the grove, was lucky enough to discover a female 

 Ivory-bill, which he followed for four or five hours. There was 

 considerable excitement in camp that night, when we all turned up 

 for supper. 



