. Wild wings; adventures of a camera-hunter among the larger wild birds of North America on sea and land . small boat, and here it was thatI first made real acquaintance with the Great White Heron,a splendid snow-white creature that stands well-nigh as tallas a man, measuring about seventy inches from bill to one of these rather small keys, I saw several ofthe noble birds flying uneasily about over the trees, and,clambering about for a time amid mangrove roots and slip-pery mud, never ceasing to fight mosquitoes withal, I Masrewarded by coming to a spot where, in some particu
. Wild wings; adventures of a camera-hunter among the larger wild birds of North America on sea and land . small boat, and here it was thatI first made real acquaintance with the Great White Heron,a splendid snow-white creature that stands well-nigh as tallas a man, measuring about seventy inches from bill to one of these rather small keys, I saw several ofthe noble birds flying uneasily about over the trees, and,clambering about for a time amid mangrove roots and slip-pery mud, never ceasing to fight mosquitoes withal, I Masrewarded by coming to a spot where, in some particularlylarge trees, several nests of the Great White Heron werebuilt. They were placed in crotches, twenty to thirty feetfrom the ground — bulky, wide platforms of sticks, saucer-shaped, profusely whitewashed, and each with two or threesnowy white young, in size and age from only a few days AMONG THE FLORIDA KEYS 29 old to a stage where they were about fully grown, and all butable to fly. One nest especially interested me. It was convenientlysituated about thirty feet from the ground, and was occupied. he stood like a statue or obelisk by one imposing young heron, another having left. A gen-tleman in appearance, he was in behavior, as he stood thereon the nest politely to receive me, not scrambling or flutter-ing out, as all young herons are too apt to do. While I was 30 WILD WINGS admiring him, and screwing up my photographic apparatus^he never moved, nor did he at the critical moments of ex-posure. Then, as I would stir him up a bit, he retreated outto a branch, where he stood like a statue or obelisk, showinghis high breeding in every inch of his splendid stature, whileI again took his picture, after which I gratefully bade himfarewell. Not so well-bred were a trio in a neighboring nest, abouthalf grown. These were of the sulky sort, and obstinatelylay down, refusing to stand, in spite of all I could do, thoughthe guide climbed up and did his best to make them
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Keywords: ., bookauthorjobh, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectbirds
