THE BIRD STUDY BOOK 

 be seen. Exercising a fair amount of caution, I 

 slew that morning fourteen poisonous reptiles, one of 

 which measured more than five feet in length and had 

 a girth I was just able to encompass with both hands. 



Wardens Shot by Plume Hunters. — This is a region 

 where the Audubon warden must constantly keep his 

 lonely watch, for should he leave even for a short 

 time there would be danger of the colony being raided 

 and the protective work of many seasons wiped out. 

 A successful shooting trip of plume hunters to the 

 Corkscrew might well net the gunners as much as 

 five thousand dollars, and in a country where money 

 is scarce that would mean a magnificent fortune. 

 The warden is fully alive to this fact, and is ever on 

 the alert. Many of the plume hunters are desperate 

 men, and he never knows what moment he may need 

 to grasp his rifle to defend his life in the shadows of 

 the Big Cypress, where alligators and vultures would 

 make short shrift of his remains. 



He remembers, as he goes his rounds among the 

 birds day by day, or lies in his tent at night, that a 

 [212 ] 



