128 



FLORIDA BIRD-LIFE 



concern, I looked at the disturbing object above. If the 

 Egrets had chosen similar nesting sites they could be 

 photographed only from a balloon ! 



" With curved neck and streamii;^ plumes " 



Beyond the Great Blue Herons, was a settlement of the 

 singularly marked Yellow-crowned Night Herons. Their 

 nests were within fifteen feet of the water, but they slipped 

 away so quietly that only close watching showed them dis- 

 appearing through the trees beyond. For two miles we 

 paddled thus in a bewildering maze of sunlit, buttressed 

 cypress trunks with shiny, round-headed "knees" protrud- 

 ing from the water, and with every branch heavily moss- 

 draped. The dark waters showed no track, the brown 

 trunks no blaze ; we seemed to be voyaging into the un- 

 known. 



