ONK MORNING IN FLORIDA. 
193 
there sure of a safe abode, kittle blue herons, both mat¬ 
ure and immature, we saw in numbers in and around the 
ponds in the marshes. The young bird is almost pure 
white, and his shining plumage seemed entirely out of place 
in so black and muddy a hole as he chose for a dining room 
that day. On a stake sat our first boat-tailed grackle, large, 
black and uninteresting it seemed to us who were reveling 
in a first sight of white egrets, sky blue herons, cardinals, 
and mocking birds. Not that the little blue heron is real¬ 
ly a sky blue; he is a much deeper shade than that as he 
stands before you, but let him fly, and let the sunlight 
strike him properly and there he is the sky blue color every 
woman loves. Dangling his yellow legs for a bit, then 
straightening them out stiffly behind him, now tucking in 
his long neck till his head seems to come out directly from 
between the wings, off he goes, to alight in the next mud¬ 
dy pool. Now our eye is taken with the fish hawk, areal¬ 
ly beautiful bird, whose huge wing spread, graceful sailing 
and loud call make him conspicuous all along the Florida 
coast. It is an inspiring sight to watch him fly over the 
water, his keen eye looking for fish, to see him rapidly de¬ 
scend and when near the water let down those strong, grasp¬ 
ing talons of his and set them tense and firm ready for his 
plunge. Now he emerges from the water, shakes himself 
a bit to let fly the few drops with which his splash baptiz¬ 
ed him and off he flies to the nearest safest tree top, and 
eats his fish, and here we leave him for the inspiration and 
excitement of the catch have degenerated into the repulsive¬ 
ness of a gorge, and we feel .sorry for the fish. 
We saw our first bald eagle flying over these marshes, 
and hoped to see him try to get the osprey’s fish away from 
him, but we had to be satisfied with Joe’s description of 
how he did it. Nor did we ever see this interesting sight 
while in Florida. 
Our drive was taking us all this while over a causeway, 
paved with broken bricks, to the island. Here we 
