::::;::::*; TWO BIRD -LOVERS IN MEXICO m=^ 



Man-o'-War. Its tiny bladder-sail was buoyant and full- 

 stretched, reflecting- all the hues of the rainbow, and 

 the curling- tentacles trailed after. At sight of it a 

 thousand memories of palm-studded shores rushed over 

 us, and, looking up, we reahzed that the miles had 

 slipped past more quickly than we thought, for only 

 a short distance aAvay was the white beach of mid- 

 Florida. It was there — we can discern almost the 

 very spot — that last winter we watched so many hun- 

 dreds of fleets of these selfsame Men-o'-War come to 

 grief, wrecks innumerable, but exquisite even in their 

 death. 



We now etlo'ed inshore still closer. The glass 

 showed every familiar feature ; the feathery cabbage- 

 palms, tall and graceful ; the dense, stiff palmettoes ; 

 now and then a little cloud of Sanderlings blowing 

 seaward and back again ; and, finall}^, a long dark 

 undulating line, now throbbing with action, now mov- 

 ing- smoothly, and we knew that the Brown Pelicans 

 were on the way to their fishing-grounds. A flock of 

 Bluebills passed swiftly, and high over the land hung 

 the Vultures, forever waiting and watching. Once, 

 with the glass, we made out a mass of circling, soar- 

 ing birds. This is the aerial guard of Pelicans watch- 

 ing over their islet in Indian River, where last year 

 we saw himdreds of nests, eggs, and young birds, all 

 crowded closely together on a low island of some 

 three acres' extent. Through an inlet we cauo-ht a 

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