228 WALKS ABOUT TALLAHASSEE. 



along." " What kind of game ?" " Well, 

 sir, we may sometimes find a partridge." I 

 smiled at the anti-climax, but was glad to 

 hear Bob White honored for once with his 

 Southern title. 



A good many of my jaunts took me past 

 the gallinule swamp before mentioned, and 

 almost always I stopped and went near. It 

 was worth while to hear the poultry cries of 

 the gallinules if nothing more; and often 

 several of the birds would be seen swimming 

 about among the big white lilies and the 

 green tussocks. Once I discovered one of 

 them sitting upright on a stake, a preca- 

 rious seat, off which he soon tumbled 

 awkwardly into the water. At another 

 time, on the same stake, sat some dark, 

 strange-looking object. The opera-glass 

 showed it at once to be a large bird sit- 

 ting with its back toward me, and holding 

 its wings uplifted in the familiar heraldic, 

 e-pluribus-unum attitude of our American 

 spread-eagle ; but even then it was some 

 seconds before I recognized it as an anhinga, 

 water turkey, though it was a male 

 in full nuptial garb. I drew nearer and 

 nearer, and meanwhile it turned squarely 



