66 THE AMERICAN FLAMINGO. 
birds. As they were now fully seven miles away it precluded 
all further work for that day. So we went ashore and 
loaded our little boat with bushes for the morrow. 
At daylight next morning we were in our boat, and after 
placing our bushes so as to completely hide, not only our- 
selves but our boat, we again set out for the birds, but with 
no better success than before. For six successive days each 
week, and for six successive weeks, did we devise every plan 
that we could conceive of, every day looking out upon that 
beautiful flock of not less than 2,500 birds, In all that time 
we could never get within 800 yards of them. Then our 
water-supply became exhausted, and we set sail for Key 
West, about 120 miles away, for new supplies; and thus 
ended the Flamingo campaign of 1884. 
The following winter I again visited the same locality. 
That time our boat stuck in the mud within about 500 yards 
of a point of land lying between the large bay and a smaller 
one still further eastward. Here we lay for two weeks with- 
out tide enough for our boat to swing to the wind, There 
were not nearly so many birds as the year before; but there 
was scarcely a day that we could not see at least one thousand. 
They fed mostly in the upper bay, came down in the morn- 
ing to rest in the larger bay, and usually returned at night. 
Their flight led them around a point of land 200 or 300 
yards from shore. Taking advantage of this circumstance 
one of us was posted on the shore, and the other remained 
in the boat. If the flock flew nearer to the land than to the 
boat, the man in the boat would swing his hat and perhaps 
fire his gun to turn their course as near the land as possible. 
If they came within reach the one on shore would give them 
a shot, or if they flew well out, the man on shore would try to 
turn them toward the boat. In that way we succeeded in 
getting six birds. We learned that whenever a bird was 
wounded and yet able to fly it would leave the flock, and 
thus we secured one or two birds that we otherwise would 
not have obtained. In one case the bird flew fully a mile 
