eo. s 
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Young Anhingas, or Snake-like Birds, in Nest. 
after sunset, of the sextette soaring. It 
is impossible to estimate with anything 
like accuracy the census of such a rook- 
ery. One of the party thought there 
were some eight thousand birds. There 
may have been that many, or only half the 
number. The Louisiana herons were the 
most numerous, and may have had one 
thousand nests or more. Next would 
come the ibises with some six hundred. 
Reckoning that the cormorants had one 
hundred and fifty, anhingas one hundred, 
little blue herons eighty, and the egrets 
about twenty, the whole would count up 
approximately about two thousand nests, 
or four thousand birds. This is a very 
moderate estimate; the actual number 
may easily have been much greater. 
Our stay at this remarkable place was a 
constant succession of wonders and de- 
lights to the spirit, but of miseries to the 
flesh. The mosquitoes were there in 
numbers beyond relief, and made life a 
burden. Photographing was torture, and 
worst of all was the changing and packing 
of plates at night, out in the open air. So 
thick were the insects that I could hardly 
lay a plate in the box without mashing 
some of them under it on the film. We 
slept among the mangrove roots, with no 
cover but our blankets and the mosquito 
net of cheese-cloth, without which last a 
man could not live. One of the nights 
was showery, and as I lay there with the 
guide, many miles from another human 
being, feeling the rain spattering in my 
face, and listening to the roaring hum 
of the insect scourge outside—alas, and 
inside—the net, and the cccasional scream 
of some wild animal in the swamp, I al- 
most wished that I was out of the wilder- 
ness. On the third day the guide felt ill, 
and, after a morning’s work, we started 
back, reaching headquarters about mid- 
night. The Cape Sable region is a tough 
proposition. But think of staying on a 
two-acre island in a wilderness lake with 
thousands of splendid birds! 
a . Fe, Gow 
