6 1 HE <A.U"D UO B*O(N)” Bi Ee hei 
Through the dark tangle of roots snakes whip their way with smooth ease. 
While the first boat-load went through we cruised about and got our- 
selves stuck in the weeds. It was highly entertaining to the women to 
watch the men hang upside down picking the weeds off the propeller of the 
motor boat with a can-opener. Once inside the magic lake we had perhaps 
the greatest thrill of the entire Florida trip. The island rookery was 
covered with at least 10,000 American and snowy egrets, Ward’s, Louisiana 
and little blue herons. Cormorants perched on the outer edges of the 
islands, and eagles and ospreys soared overhead. On the mudflats of 
another island we found 20 avocets, so rare that they are not on the Florida 
check-list. Black-necked stilts and a variety of sandpipers waded on the 
narrow edges of sand left free by the ever-crowding mangroves. We were 
reduced to silence as we were forced at last to leave this unbelievably remote 
haven, where birds may still live in peace, disturbed only occasionally by 
such worshippers as ourselves. The sun was setting as we rode back to 
Coot Bay, wondering if life could ever hold another such day. 
This ought to be the conclusion, but there was still another day to come. 
We stayed over night at Tavernier on Key Largo. The second day was 
spent traveling by launch through Florida Bay, south of the mainland which 
we had explored the day before. When I tell you that we visited the spoon- 
bill rookeries discussed in Allen’s “Flame Birds” you will know that here 
was another day beyond description. The pink, rose, and carmine birds 
against blue sky and dark green mangrove is a sight to be dreamed over 
the rest of one’s life. Here we saw for the first time the magnificent great 
white herons. Reddish egrets were another rare species seen only here. 
We had heard that we would probably find man-o’-war birds, and Mrs. 
Baldwin, always on the alert, again was the first to sight them. Caspian 
and royal terns.and black skimmers circled over us. And from the man- 
grove thickets along the shores came the buzzing, running-up-the-scale song 
cf the prairie warbler, most mis-named of all birds. 
All good things must come to an end. The morning on Florida Bay 
ended the Audubon Wildlife Tours. By evening we were back in Miami, 
and the next morning saw us rushing northward to Chicago. We have 
breathed many a prayer of thanks for the Audubon Society and the Na- 
tional Park Service that are struggling to preserve these beautiful thing's 
from further destruction. 
fl a iG 
Membership Contest 
THE MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE appreciates the response to its recent letter 
asking for the names of prospects in its campaign toward the goal of 
doubling the Society’s membership. Those who have not yet sent in their 
suggestions are urged to do so at once. 
As an incentive toward the increase in our membership the Society will 
give to the member securing the greatest number of new members in Cook 
County, or submitting the names of those who do become members, a copy 
of Kortwright’s Ducks, Geese and Swans of North America. The same 
