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 fiock, and 

 thus we secured one or two birds that we otherwise would 

 not have obtained. In one case the bird flew fully a mile 



