30 HUNTING AND FISHING IN FLORIDA. 
but said, ‘* They all gone.” According to his statement, when he 
was a boy game was very abundant in the country about the Cypress 
Creek and Hillsboro River. Bears were numerous at that time, but 
nowadays it is rare to find one in that country. Deer are still abund- 
ant, but Old Charlie says they are much less so than formerly. 
In the Big Cypress Swamp and in some localities near Lake 
Okeechobee paroquets are numerous. I have seen flocks near 
Cypress Creek, and killed a number of specimens last winter near 
Snook Creek. At one time they were abundant on the Kis- 
simmee River, but are so no longer. Paroquets build their nest in 
holes in trees, as a rule, and the Indians wait till the young are half 
grown, and then, during the absence of the old birds, they cut the 
tree nearly through ; the next night, watching their chance, they 
fell the tree quickly with one or two blows of the axe and catch the 
birds in the hole before they have time to escape. 
LOCATION OF VILLAGES. 
TueERE are five principal settlements of Florida Indians. These 
are situated, (1) in the Big Cypress, southwest of Okeechobee, (2) 
INDIAN CAMP, NEW RIVER. 
