INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE, PHILADELPHIA. 35 



constituted the landscape ; the general growth was about six to eight feet 

 in height, dense to impenetrability, but in some places it was very much 

 higher, and completely shut off from view all but the narrowest vistas. 

 We. found here a virtual paradise for birds. The red-winged starling, 

 merrily contesting with the more sombre crow-blackbird a peaceful habi- 

 tation along the immediate banks of the canal, appeared in almost count- 

 less numbers, pealing forth a continuous and perpetual strain of song, 

 while hundreds of herons, egrets, and ibises, decked in the majesty of 

 their full plumes, disported among the inner recesses of the morass, or 

 flecked with so many specks of white the clumps of trees that had been 

 selected for their heronries. An occasional limpkin or courlan (Arannts 

 f ictus) might be observed hovering over a mud-flat, but more commonly 

 its presence is announced through a peculiar distressing cry, from which, 

 not inaptly, the bird has received the name of screamer. On our return 

 journey over the same ground we observed, associated with the white 

 herons and ibises, two flocks of the roseate spoon-bill, a bird not exactly 

 uncommon in these regions, and known to the inhabitants as the " pink 

 curlew." 



We were much surprised at the abundance of alligators, whose 

 freshly made, or but recently deserted, " beds " appeared all along the 

 banks. At intervals of almost every few hundred feet one of these grim 

 monsters of mail, disturbed by our approach, would rise, and suddenly 

 turning upon itself, plunge from its sunny retreat into the cooler shades 

 below, disappearing only to reappear after the disturbing element had 

 passed. A limited number of individuals, especially young forms, took 

 no notice of our approach, retaining an air of composure in their siestas 

 which seemingly no ordinary incident could disturb ; but the greater 

 number of the individuals took to flight apparently before our approach 

 had actually been noticed, except in so far as it had been announced by 

 the displaced water of the boat spreading commotion in advance of our 

 own coming. As many as six or seven of these animals could at one 

 time be observed from our vessel, lazily crossing and recrossing the canal, 

 sometimes submerged to the extent that only the extremity of the snout 

 and the large eyes were visible, at other times extended out on the 

 surface for nearly their full extent. It is not often, I believe, that one 

 has an opportunity of observing these animals attack their prey, but I 

 was fortunate on one occasion to detect a small alligator seize a turtle by 

 its protruded neck, and draw it beneath the water. This is the only 

 instance during our entire trip that one of these animals was observed in 

 the act of feeding. 



The shallowness of the water in the canal permitted us to make con- 

 siderable use of our landing-net, which, however, brought nothing to the 

 surface but the few freshwater mollusks, recent and fossil, whose species 



