. The continent we live on. Physical geography; Natural history. direction. Up these the trees often meet overhead. They are the abode of innumerable birds, such as the White Ibis, the Wood Ibis, the fish hawks, and the Osprey, which need both water and trees. A dormitory of white ibis on one of these creeks is an unforgettable sight if the evening is clear and the cypress is in its first spring flush of delicate chartreuse green. The place is alive with all manner of mammals, from muskrat and otter to still a few puma, bear, and many deer. Although the razorback hog has got loose here, it doe
. The continent we live on. Physical geography; Natural history. direction. Up these the trees often meet overhead. They are the abode of innumerable birds, such as the White Ibis, the Wood Ibis, the fish hawks, and the Osprey, which need both water and trees. A dormitory of white ibis on one of these creeks is an unforgettable sight if the evening is clear and the cypress is in its first spring flush of delicate chartreuse green. The place is alive with all manner of mammals, from muskrat and otter to still a few puma, bear, and many deer. Although the razorback hog has got loose here, it does not seem to do much harm to the natural economy and even these feral pigs have gone nicely "back to ; It is also possible that the little weasel-shaped cat called the Jaguarundi is also indigenous here. It is the home of the giant River Frog (Rana heckscheri). a rather lovable great brute that, unlike its brother the Bullfrog, apparently cannot understand artificial lights and so just sits on the road until you pick it up. Of some significance in the area are two aquatic mollusks: a river "mussel" that provides much of the food for younger alli- gators and a large water "snail" found in the swamps and boils that sticks neat packets of globular, white, hard, but brittle- shelled eggs to twigs and tree boles just about high-water mark. Now this is a very sore subject, since the ability of animals to prejudge, seemingly by months, the top level of floods for the coming year is and always has been held seriously in question, though it has been claimed for all sorts of animals from all over the world. Here, however, you can see where the highest water reaches by a very clear wash mark on all the tree boles; and, sure enough, the snail eggs are all just about three inches above that mark whereas there are none below—and this we know because when they lay their eggs these animals cement them firmly to their anchor with a pure white platform of ca
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, booksubjectnaturalhistory, booksubjectphysicalg
