38 



THE OOLOGIST 



hills and stopping I soon made out 

 quite a number of them congregated 

 on a slight rise on the prairie and saw 

 at once that I was going to be present 

 at one of their Indian dances. There 

 were over 100 birds and they would 

 raise their heads high and slowly 

 walk around, suddenly they lowered 

 there heads and began bouncing and 

 .lumping high in the air. Sometimes 

 with raised wings, often dropping 

 across each others paths. After a few 

 minutes they increased their speed 

 and began croaking, becoming louder 

 all the time to the "Big Noise." This 

 dance lasted 5 to 6 minutes and died 

 out until another bunch arrived, when 

 the performance was repeated. I 

 watched the dance for fully y 2 hour 

 when I heard the guide blowing his 

 horn, this seemed to alarm the dancers 

 and they slowly made off feeding to 

 windward. I always thought this 

 dance was sort of a myth but I now 



know better and feel proud I was able 

 to see it once in my life. 



While on the Prairie I learned to 

 eat Palmetto cabbage. This is the bud 

 of the Cabbage Palmetto and is a fine 

 article to eat, much better than garden 

 cabbage. I visited one place called 

 the "Devil's Garden" so called an ac- 

 count of the Cabbage Palmetto grow- 

 ing in such abundance there. Camp- 

 ing on the Prairie in dry weather is no 

 joke, fleas and red bugs keep one 

 awake all the time. One night we 

 heard a wolf, first and only one I ever 

 heard in Florida. Found an abundance 

 of small squirrels in places and they 

 made a fine addition to our bill of fare. 

 They seemed different somewhat to 

 our grey squirrel in northern part of 

 the state. 



Had one experience on the Prairie 

 with Moccasin. Was wading ankle 

 deep in flagpond looking for Crane 

 nests, seeing a large moccasin ahead 

 I shot him with rifle, and was reload- 



Everglade Sand Hill Crane Fruit 



— Photo by O. E. Baynard 



