THE LOOK 65 



We had a fair wind and everything went on smoothly. The 

 scenery of Indian river is most charming. At one point it will 

 consist of tall, majestic palmettos, at another a dense fringe of 

 mangrove. Upon our way up the river we passed numbers of 

 birds, all of w r hich it was my luck to miss. After a sail of a 

 few hours we arrived at the town and I immediately landed to 

 look around. Melbourne is a thriving little town situated 

 upon the left bank of Indian river, 39 miles from Titasville. — 

 It has a population of about two hundred, and supports two 

 groceries, a postoffice, a drug store, three hotels, two churches, 

 a school, and a weekly paper — the Indian River JVeivs. 



After looking over the town to my entire satisfaction I shoul- 

 dered my gun and started out to see what I could get in the 

 way of specimens. Near the river I had a snap shot at a great 

 blue heron (Ardea herodias,) but missed him. Just in front of 

 where I stood were two crows strutting along the shore just be- 

 yond a sand bar, and about thirty yards away. Kneeling down 

 I took a careful aim and succeeded in knocking one of them 

 over very neatly with a charge of No. 6 shot. It proved to be 

 a very fine specimen of the Fish Crow (Corvus ossifragus.) — 

 Farther up the river I saw three large American Egrets (Ardea 

 egretta,) but could not succeed in getting a shot at them. 



About this time I heard a very curious noise to the left of 

 where I stood, and stopping a few moments I discovered the 

 noise to be produced by a flock of black ducks (Anas fubi- 

 gula) which were hidden from me by the thick foliage. By 

 the racket they made I should judge that they were holding a 

 political caucus or a camp-meeting. Perhaps they were elect- 

 ing a president or trying a " boodle" alderman. I decided to 

 put a stop to their convention, and so carefully creeping up 



