FOREST AND STREAM 
207 
WATER BIRDS AT SHELL POINT 
FURTHER OBSERVATIONS OF A NATURALIST OF 
BIRD LIFE ON THE SHORES OF FLORIDA IN SPRING 
B arring happenings incident to a 
low tide and adverse wind, we had 
no occurrence of note on our trip 
out. A few lesser scaup ducks 
were seen in the lower river and out over 
;he shoals off-shore a half-mile or more, 
lingering, perhaps, for some choice feed- 
ing long after most of the other ducks 
have taken their lengthened flight north- 
ward to their summer homes. Every 
year we see these ducks to a considerable 
number, in small flocks usually, until 
;arly June and sometimes even later and 
yet they are not a lot of belated cripples 
^nd they finally depart the way of their 
kinsmen. A few scattering mergansers 
were feeding in-shore, singly so far as 
seen to-day, and these may have been 
:ripples, as it is later than the records 
show them to remain in a general way. 
A few stately gulls flew about our boat 
at times, their slow-beating wings and 
robust forms giving them a most digni- 
ied bearing which, however, is soon dis- 
pelled should their precinct be unduly in- 
i^aded and their private affairs too closely 
scrutinized. Then their dignity is cast 
to the wind and on hurrying, swirling 
wings and with clamorous tongue the in- 
truder is notified of the resentment felt 
at his intrusion, and the earnest desire 
;hat the uninvited visitor shall depart 
with haste. “Nigger Geese,” as our na- 
tives call the Florida cormorants, were 
the most abundant birds seen from our 
launch and these were perched on buoy 
posts, stakes and net-spreads, doubtless 
for the most part lone bachelors or hen- 
pecked husbands, who had taken a day 
off from the cares of a growing family, 
located with many other kin-folks in 
some giant cypresses bordering a small 
pond, back a mile or more from shore, in 
the deep, oozy, timbered swamp. 
T he details of bays and islands, tides 
and bars, pure, cool water and lap- 
ping waves have been known to me for 
years, but ever act as a tonic, to be ab- 
sorbed by quiet contemplation. Here, 
now, are numerous birds, many sorts of 
dainty forms, running at the water’s edge 
as the sands uncover by receding tide. 
Here on the bare, white shells I startle 
from her nest a night-hawk that, dissem- 
bling hurt, goes struggling off that I may 
be drawn from the two dull-shaded eggs 
that lie on the bare shells in the open, but 
well concealed for all by virtue of the 
blending tones, and presently I fall to 
hunting the nest or rather nesting place 
By OSCEOLA 
of a dainty calling sprite that has been 
demanding my departure in no uncertain 
terms. 
The soft, gray and contrasting black of 
these little Wilson’s plovers make them 
blend with shell and sand and as they 
call and cry they announce their concern 
for treasures near at hand. All of my 
previous visits here had been later in the 
season and the little fellows’ time had 
pas.sed for nesting and never had I seen 
the contents of their domicile. Several 
of these birds are here. It is a famous 
place for their home-keeping and soon by 
dint of careful search I come on the three 
Courtesy of American Museum of Natural History 
Turnstone in spring plumage 
dainty eggs lying on the hard, bare shells. 
A slight cupped space has been formed 
to receive them and here with smaller 
ends at center, lying as if a part of the 
assembled shells, my eye happens to catch 
the form and I can admire the treasures 
long unfound. No doubt others are close 
about, for the different birds are loud in 
their complaints and I move on that they 
may have peace and quiet. 
The rain has come while I have been 
hunting the plover’s nest and hurrying to 
my boat I pull for the lower beach and 
join my companion, who by this time 
has had the company of his anticipated 
fellow-fishermen. We seek the shelter of 
one of the unused buildings and between 
downpours make out to prepare a wel- 
come meal. Soon after noon the clouds 
broke somewhat and the four fishermen 
betook them to their boats and pulled two 
or three miles off-shore, where I could 
see them hard at work at their vocation. 
Several interesting birds came about the 
shanty as I sat at the open doorway 
watching the distant fishermen and the 
threatening clouds again piling up in the 
.Southwest. 
A pair of boat-tailed grackle were in- 
clined to be most friendly and came close 
about the camp, now on an adjoining 
shed roof, then picking crumbs from our 
finished meal or stalking in the short 
grass just out at the water’s edge. Sev- 
eral times I had heard the cackling call 
of a marsh hen, Florida clapper rail, in 
the marsh just back of the shanty and 
presently he came running along the 
sand in front of my stand not 10 feet dis- 
tant, stopped two or three times to jerk 
his tip-tilted tail and then off through 
the grass towards the marsh. Our broad- 
reaching marshes teem with these birds. 
They are seldom shot and would fairly 
swarm were it not for their many ene- 
mies, the crows, raccoons, snakes, alli- 
gators, perhaps, and occasional storms 
that flood these marshes and destroy the 
nests in great numbers. 
A shallow pool left by the receding 
tide, not 30 steps from where I sit, seems 
to contain many choice pickings, for here 
have come a bunch of twenty or more 
dowitchers and are most industriously 
feeding as they stand in the placid water 
and thrust their long bills down Into the 
ooze. I walk out into the open and 
shorten the distance almost one-half be- 
fore they show any sign of alarm and 
then a single bird pipes up and flutters 
off a few rods and as I retreat he returns 
to his companions. 
f TP the beach a hundred yards a dozen 
or more turnstone are nervously ac- 
tive where the water still laps the shell- 
lined shore, strikingly arrayed birds with 
their odd pattern of black and white cows. 
A single ring-neck plover is with them, 
the first I have been able to identify here, 
but probably not a rare visitor along our 
shores. Farther up the beach, by aid of 
my field glasses, I make out some red- 
backed sandpipers, a part of which have 
donned their summer raiment and now 
appear with a clear black facing on a 
close-fitting vestment of white, very dif- 
ferent from the style they have worn 
throughout the past winter and. like any 
other friend, we might fail to recognize 
him because of his une.xpected appear- 
ance in a startlingly new pattern of 
clothes. 
1 am at first at a loss to know many old 
friends, as for the most part in years 
gone by they have rarely favored me 
(Continued on page 229) 
