1889
Feb. 22
Banana River, Florida.
Cloudy and cold with frequent showers. Wind N.W. blowing a
gale all day.
  We got off at about 8.30 a.m. and rowed directly
to the place where Cory shot yesterday. On the way
we saw thousands of Coots. In one place the creek
was solid full of them, for hundreds of yards.
Probably there were at least ten thousand in the flock.
We also saw many Shovellers. In a narrow part
of the channel Yellow-legs (G. flavipes) and Willet were
feeding along the margin of the water, among them
were about fifteen Stilt Sandpipers. These rose all
together and passed me in a compact flock. I shot
into them and killed three. A little further on
about forty Herons, Ardea caerulea & Ardea ludoviciana, rose
and with them thirty or more Blue-winged Teal.
  Reaching the end of a bay C. chose a stand on
an island while I put out my decoys off the
end of point at the mouth of a creek. The first
bird that came in was an adult male Blue-wing Teal
which, at the report of my gun, doubled up apparently
dead. the next minute a female Pintail swung by at
long range and I brought her down with a broken
wing. "Nelly' swam out and after some trouble caught
her under water. She then went for the Teal which
had drifted a long way out into the Bay & was
about to seize it when it rose and flew out of
sight in the distance.
  I spent the day in the stand & bagged,
besides the birds just named, another Pintail,
two [male] Shovellers, a pair of Blue-winged Teal,
a Greater Scaup, female, and a female Ring-neck Duck. I