162 Kennard, The Okaloacoochee Slough. [April 



large rookery in the cypress swamp just south of us. The next 

 morning, after making skins of a couple of Limpkins that Tom had 

 collected the night before, we started for the middle of the swamp, 

 above which we could see a number of "Flint Heads" soaring and 

 wheeling high up in the air, very much after the manner of the 

 Black Buzzards. We crossed the slough and coming out onto the 

 prairie, which here stretched away to the easterly horizon, skirted 

 the swamp for a short distance until we came to a trail used by the 

 Seminoles, who come here from all over southern Florida for the 

 huge cypress trees from which they make their dugouts. 



En route we saw several Turkeys, and after a short walk came to 

 the edge of one of the prettiest of Florida lakes, perhaps one hun- 

 dred and fifty to two hundred yards long and from thirty to sixty 

 yards wide, completely surrounded by a growth of wonderful 

 moss-covered old cypress, that seemed fairly alive with birds. 

 Anhingas, in larger numbers than I have ever seen assembled in so 

 small a space, were flying rapidly about or craning their necks as 

 they perched on overhanging boughs. There were Herons of 

 various sorts about the edges of the lake, and numbers of wise 

 looking old "Flint Heads" sitting solemnly among the tree tops. 

 Wood Ducks were swimming among the buttressed trunks of the 

 cypress trees at the border of the lake, and several huge alligators, 

 as we came in sight, were seen to sink slowly beneath the surface 

 of a pool at the southerly end. 



I had crawled out on a prostrate stump to take a photograph of 

 the beautiful scene, when suddenly a wonderful "Pink Curlew" 

 came shooting out from one of the side aisles, across the lake in 

 front of me. I must have been seized with something akin to buck 

 fever, for I simple stood there open mouthed and staring, until at a 

 yell from Tom about a dozen more flew out, and I managed to wake 

 up sufficiently to secure three of them. Later we saw several 

 more "Pinks," thirty or forty of them in all. 



Of the Spoonbills collected, one was an adult female with egg in 

 the oviduct; while the other two were immature — a male, and a 

 female with ovaries undeveloped. The irides of the immature 

 specimens, instead of being bright carmine, like their elders, were, 

 to quote my notes, " of a nondescript color at first glance blue, but 

 on closer examination a sort of dark hazel." 



