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170 THE CONDOR Vol. XXI 
many other kindnesses, Major Harris placed at our disposal. However, we got 
110 farther than a short distance beyond the portals of the Everglades, which at 
that point we found to be little else but a sea of tall canes and grasses, studded 
here and there with islets clothed with cypress and other sub-tropical vegeta- 
tion. The tortuous channels by which they were traversed were too narrow and 
shallow for the passage of a boat, and were navigable only by the light canoe 
of the Indian. Here we were introduced to that hawk of anomalous mollusk- 
eating habits, the Everglade Kite or ‘‘snailhawk’’, an excellent account of 
which with its nest and eggs is to be found in Maynard’s ‘‘ Birds of Eastern 
North America’’, 1881, p. 284. Here also we heard for the first time the scream 
of the cougar, a few of which lurked in these.swampy fastnesses to prey upon 
the deer which were still fairly numerous. 
LIFE AT MIAMI 
The Seminole Indians from their settlements in the Everglades frequently 
visited us at Miami, bringing venison and delicious sweet potatoes, which we 
were always glad to buy, for, to tell the truth, Weeks and I, who messed by 
ourselves (mess is exactly the right word), fared none too sumptuously. True 
there was some small game in the woods, quail and rabbits, and schools of fish 
played in the bay before our eyes, but both of us were busy from morning to 
night at our self-imposed tasks, and begrudged every moment we spent in at- 
tempts to replenish our larder. We took turns cooking—Heaven save the 
mark !—and as each of us soon became expert at making flapjacks we lived 
principally upon that delicacy, made palatable with molasses syrup, which we 
found, somewhat to our surprise, quite capable of sustaining human life. From 
that day to this the flapjack has ceased to be an object of interest to me. 
Perhaps the most notable bird we found at or near Miami was the little 
grassquit (Phompara zena), now known as Tiaris bicolor, a straggler from the 
Bahamas, of which I took a single specimen January 19, 1871." We also se- 
cured the nest and eggs of the Everglade Kite in a magnolia bush on March 24. 
But we obtained fine series of many southern species, which well illustrated the 
avifauna of the region, and certain of which have since been described as new 
by one and another author. Most of the specimens collected on the trip found 
a permanent abiding place in the Museum of Comparative Zoology, or the 
Agassiz Museum, as it was generally known in those days. 
“Mr. Maynard and his wife left April 2 on a sailing yacht for a collecting 
eruise through the Keys to Key West, while I remained in Miami till the end 
of May when I returned home by way of Key West and New York. 
I never published any notes upon the results of my Florida trip, but in 
Maynard’s ‘‘Birds of Florida’’, three parts only of which were issued, and in 
his , Birds of Florida with the Woe and Game Birds of Eastern North Amer- 
ica’’, of which 9 parts were published; and finally in his ‘‘Birds of Hastern 
North America’’, the reader will find much valuable information and many in- 
teresting details of the habits of Florida birds. These were gathered by this 
indefatigable naturalist, not only on the ’70-’71 trip with me, but during sev- — 
eral other seasons when he explored different parts of the peninsula, in which 
work he was one of the pioneers. . 
“Birds of 
*This bird is figured on the Lantana on which it was shot in Maynard’s 
Eastern North America”, 1881, pl. II, p. 328. fer. 
