BIRD RESERVATIONS 



can be told in one short chapter. The protected col- 

 onies are located mainly in the low swampy regions of 

 North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Flor- 

 ida. I have been in many of these "rookeries" 

 and know that the warden who undertakes to 

 guard one of them takes his life in his hand. Per- 

 haps a description of one will answer more or less 

 for the twenty other Heron colonies the Society has 

 under its care. 



The Corkscrew Rookery. — Some time ago I visited 

 the warden of this reservation, located in the edge of 

 the "Big Cypress" Swamp thirty-two miles south 

 of Ft. Myers, Florida. Arriving at the colony late 

 in the evening, after having travelled thirty miles 

 without seeing a human being or a human habitation, 

 we killed a rattlesnake and proceeded to make camp. 

 The shouting of a pair of Sandhill Cranes awakened 

 us at daylight, and, to quote Greene, the warden, the 

 sun was about "two -hands high" when we started 

 into the rookery. We crossed a glade two hundred 



yards wide and then entered the swamp. Progress 

 [205 ] 



