THE BIRD STUDY BOOK 



was slow, for the footing was uncertain and the tall 

 sawgrass cut our wrists and faces. 



There are many things unspeakably stimulating 

 about a journey in such a tropical swamp. You 

 work your way through thick, tangled growths of 

 water plants and hanging vines. You clamber over 

 huge fallen logs damp with rank vegetation, and 

 wade through a maze of cypress "knees." Unwit- 

 tingly, you are sure to gather on your clothing a 

 colony of ravenous ticks from some swaying branch. 

 Redbugs bent on mischief scramble up on you by the 

 score and bury themselves in your skin, while a cloud 

 of mosquitoes waves behind you like a veil. In the 

 sombre shadows through which you move you have 

 a feeling that there are many unseen things that 

 crawl and glide and fly, and a creepy feeling about 

 the edges of your scalp becomes a familiar sensation. 

 Once we came upon the trail of a bear and found the 

 going easier when we waded on hands and knees 

 through the opening its body had made. 



In the more open places the water was completely 

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