AN OSPEEY'S NEST. 95 



gray Spanish moss as to be almost out of sight. It is 

 said that the birds collect the materials of which their 

 nests are made from distant places, when they might 

 easily secure them within a few rods of the tree on 

 which they are placed. One of the nests was as large 

 as a bushel basket, and is said to have been occupied 

 each season for fifteen years, or since the Tomoka 

 was first visited by the tourists, and for how much 

 longer man knoweth not. It is lined each spring with 

 new moss, and otherwise put in repair. To-day the 

 head of the sitting bird was just visible above its rim. 

 The season of incubating was evidently in its height 

 as one of the birds was either sitting on each nest 

 noted, or was standing on its edge, while the other 

 was usually perched on a nearby tree. 



Going up the stream until fallen trees formed a 

 barrier against further progress we turned the bow 

 towards home and retraced our way to Misener's 

 Landing and the cabin. Here a high piece of sandy 

 ground, free from underbrush a pine-barren, in fact 

 stretches back from the river, far as eye can reach. 

 It is covered with a tall species of wire grass, Aristida 

 stricta Michx., now brown and sere ; while numerous 

 examples of the long-leaved pine, Pinus palustris 

 Mill., are scattered over its expanse. It was the first 

 open pine woods I had had opportunity to visit, and 

 while the others of the party amused themselves about 

 the cabin, I rambled afar, seeking what I might find, 

 in this southern woodland pasture. 



