THE FLORIDA GREAT BLUE HERON 



AND THE WATER TURKEY 



In 1858, when Bryant located Pelican Island as "twenty 

 miles north of Fort Capron," lie took for his base the 

 nearest settlement which then appeared on the maps of that 

 little known region. But one will search the latest Florida 

 maps in vain for a locality with tliis name, so honored in our 

 military service. 



The Fort ('apron of the Indian wars is, however, the St. 

 Lucie of to-day ; the site of the old fort is still visible, and at 

 this point one may start on the Capron Trail, which now, as 

 then, crosses the Kissimmee at Fort Bassenger, on a ferry 

 "flat." 



On the morning of March 21, 1905, with Aden Summer- 

 lin, as guide, Mrs. Chapman and I started westward, on the 

 Capron Trail, for a certain rookery of Water Turkeys 

 (Anhinga) and Florida Great Blue Plerons (Ardea 

 herodias wardi) distant some seventeen miles. We camped 

 that night in a dense palm hammock near an arm of Seven 

 Mile Slough, where the Barred Owls discussed our appear- 

 ance, in several languages. Hundreds of Louisiana Herons 

 were beginning to nest in the button-wood grown ponds and 

 we remained here two days to study them. 



March 23, we crossed the Slough over the mile and a half 

 ford, through the saw-grass — where I lightened the load by 

 putting our canoe overboard and getting a tow all the 

 way over — and reached our destination early in the after- 

 noon. 



Our camp was in the pines near the border of a great 

 cypress swamp, in which were the ponds where the birds we 

 desired were supposed to be nesting. White Egrets were 

 said to have " rooked " here in large numbers but they had 



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