66 ON THE BEACH AT DAYTON A. 



over the draw, which just then stood open 

 for the passage of a tug-boat. The toll- 

 gatherer told me they had come " from some 

 place " eight or ten days before. His atten- 

 tion had been called to them by his cat, who 

 was trying to get up to the box to bid them 

 welcome. He believed that she discovered 

 them within three minutes of their arrival. 

 It seemed not unlikely. In its own way a 

 cat is a pretty sharp ornithologist. 



One or two cormorants were almost al- 

 ways about the river. Sometimes they sat 

 upon stakes in a patriotic, spread-eagle 

 (American eagle) attitude, as if drying 

 their wings, a curious sight till one be- 

 came accustomed to it. Snakebirds and 

 buzzards resort to the same device, but I 

 cannot recall ever seeing any Northern bird 

 thus engaged. From the south bridge I one 

 morning saw, to my great satisfaction, a 

 couple of white pelicans, the only ones that 

 I found in Florida, though I was assured 

 that within twenty years they had been com- 

 mon along the Halifax and Hillsborough 

 rivers. My birds were flying up the river 

 at a good height. The brown pelicans, on 

 the other hand, made their daily pilgrimages 



