78 WILD WINGS 



rookery, upon which, doubtless, they often crawled out. One 

 of them furnished us not a little amusement. There was a flock 

 of six American Coots, or Mud-Hens, feeding a little way out 

 in the lake, near to where we had retreated in the boat from 

 the mosquitoes to eat our dinner. The wily old fellow had 

 evidently seen the coots, for he kept diving and emerging 

 nearer and nearer to them. The water was too shallow 

 for him to catch them from beneath, so when he had come 

 reasonably near, in line with the course they were swimming, 

 he lay perfectly still upon the surface, looking like an old 

 root or snag. Unwittingly the coots fed along till they were 

 perhaps within ten yards. Then they noticed the 'gator, but 

 apparently were not sure what it was. Ceasing to feed, they 

 swam close together, and really appeared to be holding con- 

 sultation, in some way. Finally one of them started off, the 

 rest looking on, and swam up within a few feet of the object. 

 There it stopped and studied it, turning its head from side 

 to side, to see it out of either eye. Finally it swam back to 

 its companions, and appeared to communicate something, for 

 they turned and swam off in the direction from which they 

 had come. The guide told me that the 'gator's way would 

 have been, had they come within range of his weapon, to 

 swing his tail around with a great slash and break their 

 necks. 



Naturally we made some attempt to form an estimate of 

 the bird-population of this great rookery. The Louisiana 

 Heron was the most abundant species, and may have had 

 from fifteen hundred to two thousand nests. Next would 

 come the White Ibises, with well toward one thousand pairs 

 or nests ; then Florida Cormorants with about two hundred, 

 Anhingas and Little Blue Herons with about one hundred 

 each, and the American Egrets with only about twenty, with 

 half a dozen pairs of Roseate Spoonbills when the other party 



