YACIITIXG OX THE ST. JOIIXS. 169 



Appropriated the bird. The gentleman in turn gave the 

 beast a peppering of shot for his sauce, enraging him, 

 without any serious injury, when he turned on the boat 

 and took out a piece of the side, gunwale and all, so damag 

 ing it that they only made their way home in it by careen 

 ing the broken side high out of water. These ill-man 

 nered fellows often deprive the hunter of game that falls 

 in the water, and the foregoing incident teaches the im 

 prudence of irritating them with shot. 



The fishing about the outlet of Lake Monroe is very 

 good, but gar and catfish play the mischief with trolling 

 gear, and carry away spoons most annoyingly. Bass are 

 the best fish obtained. In one of the eddying pools I 

 ixjok bass so rapidly, that in less than half an hour the 

 bottom of the skiff was alive with them, which, to avoid 

 waste, were given to the steward of a steamboat, and 

 abundantly supplied the table for a hungry crowd of 

 tourists, 



In the spring time the herons assume, to adorn their 

 season of love-making, a plumage of remarkable beauty. 

 It commences at the base of the neck, and extending 

 backward between and over the wings, the long, airy 

 plumes of dainty feathery sprays hang down gracefully 

 behind the bird, and give a very stylish addition, a la 

 panier, to a bird that never saw a fashion-plate, and 

 has no trouble with any laundress. To obtain these ex 

 quisite- decorations for the race so sadly neglected by 

 nature in regard to the adornments so lavished on the 

 inferior creations, these &quot; angel birds &quot; are assiduously 

 hunted, and are consequently so wild, that only by strat 

 egy can they be shot on any of the borders of the river. 

 From our deck we noticed that numbers of blue, white, 

 and lesser herons alighted very constantly upon two iso- 

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