AMONG THE FLORIDA KEYS 33 



benumbed. He will beware of handling these gentry here- 

 after. 



Sailing on again, this time south and east, late in the 

 evening we approached Man-o'-War Key and "Bush." 

 The latter is a submerged mangrove islet, and both are old 

 resorts of the Frigate or Man-o'-War Bird. Early in the 

 morning we rowed and waded to each of them in the tender 

 over the shallows and " soap-flats." In the vessel we could 

 not approach them within half a mile. There were no " Men- 

 o'-War," but a few Brown Pelicans and Ward's Herons, and 

 large numbers of Florida Cormorants were roosting upon 

 the trees, though not breeding. The latter gave me a good 

 snap-shot picture or two as a large band doubled past me, 

 leaving the Man-o'-War Bush. I then waded to the islet, 

 and, as I came around its end, surprised a considerable 

 number of the cormorants roosting upon the trees on the 

 other side. Some of them went flapping off low over the 

 water ; others fell headlong into the sea as though they 

 had fainted, but immediately disappeared. In a few moments 

 I saw them emerge well off from shore and take to wing. 



When I tried to " land " upon the " Bush," I found it a rather 

 uncanny place. There was no land at all ; the trees grew 

 out of the water, which was knee deep. Every branch was 

 completely whitewashed with the excrement of the birds, but 

 there was not a nest of any sort. Nor were the cormorants 

 nesting upon the other and larger key near by. But there 

 I found a number of empty nests of the Ward's Heron, which 

 the young had probably left, all built in quite low trees. 

 A pair of Bald Eagles which we saw had their huge nest of 

 sticks in a rather large black mangrove, forty feet from the 

 ground. It was now past their breeding-time. 



From here we started out for a long, hard beat to wind- 

 ward, in a southeasterly direction, to reach a little settlement 



