182 ON THE UPPER ST. JOHN’S. 
boat noiselessly against the bank in the 
shelter of tall reeds, put down the oars, with 
which he could almost have touched the 
alligator, and took up his gun. At that 
moment the creature got wind of us, and 
slipped incontinently into the water, not a 
little to my relief. One live alligator is 
worth a dozen dead ones, to my thinking. 
He showed his back above the surface of the 
stream for a moment shortly afterward, and 
then disappeared for good. 
Ornithologically, the creek was a disap- 
pointment. We pushed into one bay after 
another, among the dense “ bonnets,’’ — 
huge leaves of the common yellow pond lily, 
—but found nothing that I had not seen 
before. Here and there a Florida gallinule 
put up its head among the leaves, or took 
flight as we pressed too closely upon it; but 
I saw them to no advantage, and with a 
single exception they were dumb. One bird, 
as it dashed into the rushes, uttered two 
or three cries that sounded familiar. The 
Florida gallinule is in general pretty silent, 
I think; but he has a noisy season; then he 
is indeed noisy enough. A swamp contain- 
ing a single pair might be supposed to be 
