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A NATURE WOOING

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ORMOND BY THE SEA

BY

W. S. BLATCHLEY

Author of "Gleanings From Nature"

"The morning wind forever blowa, the poem of creation is uninterrupted;
but few are the ears that hear it."

— Thoreau.

INDIANAPOLIS
THE NATURE PUBLISHING COMPANY

Copyright, 1908,
By W. S. BLATCHLEY.

PBESS OK
VM. B. BUKFOBD
INDIANAFOLI8

To the thousands of tourists who, each winter, seek the
shelter of the sunny skies and the companionship of the roaring
surf at "Ormond by the Sea" this volume is inscribed, with the
hope that in the minds of some of them it may engender an
acquaintance with and a friendship for some of the more lowly
forms which there abound.

CONTENTS.

SOUTHWARD BOUND 9

AT ORMOND BY THE SEA 23

A DAY ON THE UPPER ST. JOHN'S RIVER 196

APPENDIX.

A List of the Odonata taken at Ormond 213

A List of the Orthoptera taken at Onnond 216

A List of the Hemiptera-Heteroptera taken at Ormond. 224

A List of the Butterflies taken at Onnond 227

A List of the Coleoptera taken at Ormond 233

LIST OF PLATES.

FACING PAGE

1. The Cabin on the Tomoka Frontispiece

2. A Portion of the Main Street of Ormond 23

3. The Saw Palmetto 26

4. One of the Old Spanish Chimneys .... 37

5. The Wreck of the Nathan F. Cobb 79

6. A View on the Tomoka 97

7. Thompson's Creek — A Typical Florida Stream .... Ill

8. A View from the Tomoka Cabin 123

9. A Portion of the Ormond Shell Mound 165

10. My Main Excavation in the Ormond Mound 175

11. The Diamond Rattlesnake 187

12. A Portion of the " Old Causeway " 194

MAP.

Showing the St. John's River and the Region about
Ormond. . . 197

PREFACE.

"Go South and rest for a month or two." Thus
my physician spoke in the late winter of 1898-'99,
when I was suffering from a severe attack of nerv-
ous prostration. Southward I went, but my rest was
mainly taken in the great hospital of Nature — the
woods and fields of the region where I sojourned.
There I jotted down facts and fancies concerning
the animals and plants about me. There, at times,
I indulged in reveries on other subjects, which, too,
were scribbled in my daily note book. These I have
incorporated, for the most part just as they were then
written, in this little volume.

With my own thoughts I have combined many
statements from others regarding the objects which
I observed. These are mainly from the works of
Bartram, Michaux, Say and other naturalists and
travelers of nearly a century ago. Their books are
becoming scarce, but the objects of which they wrote
still abound and can be seen or heard by almost any
visitor to the sunny southland who has an open eye
and an ear atune with nature.

The book will, I trust, add something to what is
known of the geographical distribution of many of

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PREFACE. 7

nature's objects mentioned therein, and may also aid
in preserving from oblivion some of the thoughts and
facts recorded of those objects by the observers of
old.

At a casual glance, the book may seem scientific
and technical in nature, owing to the large number
of Latin names used. These are, however, printed in
italics and may be readily passed over without losing
any part of the connection, since they are almost al-
ways accompanied by the common name of the plant
or animal to which they refer. Aside from these
Latin names, it is believed that no portion of the
book will be found unintelligible to the ordinary
reader.

Indianapolis, Ind., October 1, 1902.

"My heart is fixed firm and stable in the belief that ultimately
the sunshine and the summer, the flowers and the azure sky, shall
become, as it were, interwoven into man's existence. He shall
take from all their beauty and enjoy their glory."— Jeffries.

"I prefer an oak tree to a temple; grass to a brick pavement;
wild flowers beneath a blue sky to exotic orchids under glass. I
would walk where I do not risk being jostled, and, if I see fit to
swing my arms, leap a ditch or climb a tree, I want no gaping
crowd, when I do so, to hedge me in. In short, I prefer living
4 next neighbor to Nature.' "— 0. C. Abbott.

41 1 wish so to live ever as to derive my satisfactions and in-
spirations from the commonest events, every day phenomena, so
that what my senses hourly perceive in my daily walk may inspire
me, and I may dream of no heaven but that which lies about
me."— Thoreau.

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SOUTHWARD BOUND.

" The man who goes alone can start to-day; but he who travels with
another must wait till that other is ready, and it may be a long time
before they get off." — Thoreau.

March 3, 1899. — This morning I leave Louisville,
Kentucky, southward bound, seeking, as did Ponce
de Leon, renewed health and vigor in the "Land of
Flowers." A heavy mist at first veils everything
from view. Occasionally it lifts for a few rods back
from the railway, and I see a clump of Kentucky cof-
fee trees, Gymnocladus dioica L., still bearing their
last year's crop of thick, chocolate brown pods; or,
perchance, the curly head and ebony face of a smil-
ing pickaninny gleams for an instant through the
mist, which quickly settles down about him as the
train rushes on.

I change my title twice within twenty minutes.
The Pullman conductor, as he collects my berth fare,
dubs me "Captain." He hails from St. Louis, where
captains are plentiful on the Mississippi Kiver boats.
Shortly comes along the regular train conductor, a
portly gentleman from Louisville. True to his Ken-
tucky instinct, he calls me "Colonel." I am not pos-
sessed of that universal accompaniment of a Ken-

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10 A NATURE WOOING.

tucky Colonel, a bottle of moonshine or old Bourbon
whiskey, but I have the next thing to it, a flask of
Burgundy wine, so here's to the health of the train
conductor who raised my rank on first sight. Long
may he live and prosper ! At the present rate of pro-
motion I shall be a Major-General many hours be-
fore I reach my destination.

Beyond Lawrenceburgh, a short distance, the hills
or bluffs of the Kentucky River appear, clad in the
evergreen of the cedar and the pine. We cross the
river on Young's High Bridge and soon reach Lex-
ington, the second city in Kentucky — the home of
Henry Clay and the Breckenridges — the heart of the
famous blue-grass region — renowned to-day among
the elite of this land of ours for its handsome women,
its famous race-track, its noted stud-farms. Among
men of letters a century ago, it was known chiefly as
being the seat of Transylvania University, then the
most celebrated school of learning beyond the Alle-
ghanies, but destined soon to be overshadowed by
many which sprang into existence in Kentucky's sis-
ter states.

To naturalists, Lexington is chiefly interesting for
its having been for a term of years the abiding place
of that unique member of their ilk, Constantine Sam-
uel Rafinesque. Here he wrote his "Ichthyologia
Ohioensis," over which students of the finny tribe
puzzled for 50 years. Only recently have Rafines-
que's genera and species, as characterized in that

KENTUCKY BL UE- GRASS. 11

work, received tlieir just recognition. Indeed, had
not David S. Jordan, with his discerning eye and
clear judgment, identified the species from the scanty
descriptions of the "Ichthyologia," and then, con-
trary to the wishes of many ichthyologists, claimed
for the author, in accordance with the rules of zoo-
logical nomenclature, his just deserts, much of
Rafinesque's work would have been buried in obliv-
ion.

One sees but little of Lexington from the train.
The Louisville & Cincinnati divisions of the Southern
Railway merge at this point, and a motley crowd of
tourists, seeking also the sunshine of the southland,
come into the sleeper and put an end to the quiet
which, up to this time, I have enjoyed. Between
Lexington and Danville the road runs for the most
of the way through a limestone region. About Dan-
ville the country is especially fine. A few warm days
have put new vigor into the blue-grass, and the tiny
rootlets have begun to suck up the nourishment
yielded during the winter by the disintegrating lime-
stone. Far and wide the pastures spread, covered
with that faint green tinge which appears in a blue-
grass region as one of the foremost harbingers of the
coming springtime. Prince among our native grasses
this — aye, more than prince — the king, the ruler of
them all — surpassing all others in beauty and grace-
fulness of culm, as well as in its value to the owner
of the land. James Lane Allen, writing of it, per-

12 A NATURE WOOING.

haps of that growing on these very slopes, has called
it a "hardy, kindly, beautiful, nourishing stock; lov-
ing rich lands and apt to find out where they lie ; up-
rooting inferior aborigines, but stoutly defending its
new domain against all invaders ; paying taxes wellj
with profits to boot; thriving best in temperate lati-
tude and checkered sunshine; benevolent to flocks
and herds ; and allying itself closely to the history of
any people whose content lies in simple plenty and
habitual peace — the perfect squire-and-yeoman type
of grasses."*

Before reaching Burgin we cross once again the
Kentucky River at another High Bridge. The bluffs

of this river, wherever
I have seen it, are very
high and precipitous,
forming the walls of a
rocky gorge which the
onflowing waters dur-
ing hundreds of centu-
ries have slowly eroded
in the soft limestone of
Fig. i-Chipnmnk. this region. The scen-

ery about High Bridge

is wild and picturesque, and for a distance the rail-
way resembles a great serpent, winding in and out as
it follows the bends of the stream; its bed having
been carved out of the solid rock along the side of the
bluff.

*The Blue Grass Region of Kentucky, p. 1.

SOUTHWARD BOUND. 13

The fences of this portion of Kentucky are mostly
of stone, gray, lichen covered, and seemingly capable
of withstanding the elements for centuries. At one
point I note a chipmunk, Tamias siriatus L., seated
on his haunches on top of one of these fences within
a rod of the fast moving train. The first of March
sees him abroad here — the first or middle of April in
central Indiana. I can almost hear his scolding
"tchwk — tchwk" as the train dashes past him.

About McKinney and South Fork, in Lincoln
County, we first strike the scrub oak thickets, which
mark the passage from the limestone region into one
of sandstone or mixture of lime and sand. The soil
for many miles thereafter is red with a superabund-
ance of iron oxide, and so poor and rocky that one
would have difficulty in raising a disturbance upon
it, unless a little leaven or fertilizer of "moonshine"
was present to serve as a starter.

Just before reaching Waynesburg, we strike the
foothills of the Cumberland Mountains, and the rail-
way passes through the first of the twenty-seven tun-
nels which it was necessary to cut through the
ridges along it's line. This is King's Tunnel — said to
be one and a half miles in length. Crossing the Cum-
berland River at Burnside, the railway winds on
through tunnel after tunnel and down valley after
valley, until Harriman, Tennessee, is reached. This
is a boom town, which stands out prominently on the
hills, two or three miles to the left of the main line
of the Southern.

14 A NATURE WOOING.

Below Harriman the railway runs southwesterly,
following the valley of the Tennessee River for 70
miles to Chattanooga. On the right for this entire
distance that grand escarpment of the Cumberland
Mountains, known as Walden Ridge, rises precipi-
tously a thousand feet or more in one unbroken
line. To a person coming from the level plains of
Central Indiana, how high, how grand seems its sum-
mit, gleaming in the bright spring sunshine ! In a
level country 'tis hard at times for the naturalist to
bring his thoughts above the level of the sward. But
with hills about- — gray lichen covered cliffs of lime-
stone or sandstone to feast the eyes upon — with
waters babbling o'er their stony bed or falling in
sheet-like form from the ledges above — one is in-
spired with new thoughts and enstrengthened with
new ambitions. The hills lift up the human soul
just in proportion as they lift their pinnacles toward
the skies. No man from a land of level sward e'er
saw for the first time a mountain peak pierce the
clouds without being bettered by the sight. New
thoughts, new hopes, new resolves are engendered
within him by this glimpse of a portion of his mother
earth rising so far above him. Heretofore he has
trodden her easily beneath his feet — has felt himself
master of her domain because he has been above her.
Now he sees her towering in inaccessible cliffs far be-
yond his reach. A feeling of her greatness begins,
for the first time, perchance, to force itself upon

SOUTHWARD BOUND. 15

him. He sees new worlds unconquered ; he dreams
of conquering them ; and with this dream new seeds
of resolve, of ambition, of manfulness, are sown with-
in his soul. It may be months — aye, years — before
these seeds begin to germinate, but they are there,
and the proper environments and opportunities will
sometime cause them to make their presence known.
I sit for an hour or more on the rear end of the
observation car drinking in the beauty of this valley
of the Tennessee. As we proceed southward the
signs of spring become more numerous. After pass-
ing Dayton, the music of the frogs7 full chorus comes
to my ear for the first time this season, and there-
after, wherever the train stops in the vicinity of
water, it is the prevailing sound. As the last rays of
the day's sunlight glisten and sparkle in reflection
from the crests of the cliffs of Lookout Mountain,
the train enters Chattanooga. 'Tis a city famous in
the annals of war— once ravaged and desolated by
contending armies, now thriving and populous — its
35,000 citizens enjoying that peace, plenty and pros-
perity which has come as the aftermath to the long
struggle of two score years ago. From the car win-
doAV the city appears to be scattered over much space,
and the houses old and begrimed with smoke, but,
as in most other cities, the railway probably passes
through the least pleasing portion. As we leave its
environs the curtain of darkness lowers and the ob-
servations of the day are at an end.

16 A NATURE WOOING.

March 4, 1899. — Morning breaks with the hills
all behind us and the swamps of Georgia surrounding
us on every side. The train stops with a sudden jerk
which arouses me. The first sound which greets my
ear is the trumpeting note of the festive bull-frog.
Looking out, I see a waste of water; low, shrubby
pine trees; flat, wet miasmatic land. Thus it con-
tinues for an hour or more, when Everett is reached.
It is in Glynn Coimty, near the southeastern border
of the State. On the map in the folder of the rail-
way company the name appears in bold faced type,
the place being a crossing of two railways. From
this I was led to expect a town of some size, but a
glance through the haze of the early morn shows only
fifteen or twenty rude frame houses, a railway sta-
tion and stock pens; the latter presumably for aid in
loading and shipping the famous razor-backed hogs,
which I here see for the first time.

Below Everett a few miles the first specimens of
that striking, semi-tropical growth, the cabbage pal-
metto, Sabal palmetto R. & S., appear. It occurs in
low ground near the coast, from the mouth of Cape
Fear River, North Carolina, southward to Florida,
and along both sides of that peninsula as far west-
ward as the Appalachicola River. Occasionally,
especially along the inlets and larger streams, it is
found back thirty to fifty miles from the sea. Pos-
sessing a trunk twenty to forty feet in height, of a
uniform diameter throughout, and without a branch

THE CABBAGE PALMETTO. 17

or other appendage save a loose, globular crown of
large palmated leaves, it is one of the most beauti-
ful and majestic members of our southern flora. The
leaves, when fully expanded, are of a brilliant green
with petioles two feet or more in length and palmate
blades varying from three to five feet in breadth.
They are so arranged that the smallest occupy the
center of the summit and the largest the circumfer-
ence. The stem increases in height only by the
growth of the terminal bud, and before the leaves de-
velop they are folded like a fan. As the older leaves
die and drop away, the bases of their petioles and
their sheaths form a protuberance about the base of
the crown; the sheaths in time being dissolved into a
network of brown interlaced fibers.

In the words of Michaux, the base of the unopened
bundle of leaves "is white, compact and tender ; it is
eaten with oil and vinegar, and resembles the arti-
choke and the cabbage in taste, whence is derived the
name of 'cabbage tree.' But to destroy a vegetable
which has been a century in growing, to obtain three
or four ounces of a substance neither richly nutri-
tious nor peculiarly agreeable to the palate, would be
pardonable only in a desert which was destined to
remain uninhabited for ages. With -similar prodigal-
ity of the works of nature, the first settlers of Ken-
tucky killed the buffalo, an animal weighing twelve
or fifteen hundred pounds, for the pleasure of eat-

18 A NATURE WOOING.

ing its tongue, and abandoned the carcass to the
beasts of the wilderness."*

The palmetto, however, has outlasted the buffalo,
and bids fair to thrive for centuries yet to come in the
waste lands along our southern coast. Like other
palms, it is a true endogen, its trunk being composed

Fig. 2— Carrion Crow.

of bundles of elongated woody fibers. It is of no ac-
count as fuel, being very soft, porous and full of sap,
and therefore decaying before it dries sufficiently to
burn. Its main use is in the construction of piles,
wharves, etc., as it is impervious to the attack of the
ship worm, Teredo navalis L., and very durable un-
der water.

* N. Am. Sylva, 1819, III, p. 2.

THE CARRION CROW. 19

Coincident with the appearance of the first pal-
metto is that of another semi-tropical form, though
this time winged, namely, the black vulture or car-
rion crow, Catharista atrata Bartram. In recent
years the known range of this vulture has gradually
extended northward, until now it is recorded as a
resident in small numbers in southern Ohio and In-
diana.* In the south it is everywhere abundant and,
being a voracious and indiscriminate feeder on car-
rion and all sorts of animal refuse, it is an efficient
and almost indispensable scavenger. In the vicinity
of all southern cities it is very tame, perching in flocks
on the roofs, fences and trees, and fearlessly swoop-
ing down in the streets and alleys upon any object
which presents the appearance of animal offal.

In southern Georgia and all of Florida the rail-
ways are ballasted with sand. The engines burn pine
wood instead of coal. As a consequence the flakes
of soot and burning cinders are large and abundant.
Fires alongside the railway are very common. Since
all bridges, except those across the largest streams,
are of wood supported by piles, the burning of some
one of them is of common occurrence, and traffic is
thereby oftentimes much delayed. From the sand
ballast, and from the sandy plains over which the
roads, for the most part, pass, arises a fine dust,
which, mixed with the cinders,, finds its way through
car windows and doors and settles over everything

*Vide Twenty-second Annual Report, Department of Geology and
Natural Resources of Indiana, 1897, p. 768.

20 A NATURE WOOING.

within. The railway fare upon all the roads in Flor-
ida is four cents per mile.

The towns from Everett to Jacksonville are all
small, apparently pioneer affairs, started when the
railway was built, upon small clearings in a primeval
wilderness. For most of the way the soil of the up-
land appears to be a very thin coating of organic
matter resting on a bed of white sand. The long-
leaved pine, Pinus palustris Mill., and two or three
species of wire grass, Aristida, form ninety per cent,
or more of the vegetation of these so-called "pine-
barrens." The pines are almost all second growth,
and in many places are being used for turpentine pro-
duction. Occasionally one sees a giant, rising far
above its fellows, with long festoons of gray Spanish
moss, Tillandsia usneoides L., dangling from its out-
stretched limbs. These are the solitary sentinels of
the original pine forest, now standing guard, as it
were, over the younger generation. Their com-
panions have long since fallen before the axes of the
lumbermen, who invaded all this district adjacent to
the railway as soon as the latter was completed.
About the borders of the pine-barrens and in the
marshes the vegetation is much more dense and the
number of species of shrubs and trees very large.

Crossing the St. Mary's River, a sluggish, lagoon-
like stream about one thousand feet in width, we en-
ter Florida — land of our hopes and dreams — and of
the hopes and dreams of thousands of other tourists

SOUTHWARD BOUND. 21

who visit it each year in search of health or pleasure.
The same scenery continues. In places the land is
higher, the long-leaved pines larger, the underbrush
of the marshes more cleared away. Where they are
loading pine logs on the cars we note that four to
eight mules are hitched to a cart, the wheels of which
are ten feet in diameter. Suspended from the axle of
the cart is a kind of grappling hook or clamp, which
clasps the log in its iron embrace. The log is then
dragged across the barren and along the roads to the
point of loading.

We arrive at Jacksonville at 9:30 o'clock a. m.,
an hour late. The railway station is in the outskirts
of the city and we see but little of the latter, as we
have to hurry on board the train for St. Augustine
and the south, which has waited for us. This train
belongs to what is known as the Florida East Coast
System, which, together with the Plant System, con-
trols all the railways of Florida. The main line of
the East Coast System extends from Jacksonville to
Miami, a distance of 366 miles, the railway lying
parallel to and but a mile or two distant from the
Atlantic, throughout the greater portion of its length.

Jacksonville, the metropolis of Florida, and the
point to which all tourists are ticketed, is a city of
30,000 population, located on the St. John's River,
some twenty miles from its mouth. My destination
is Ormond, a town on the Atlantic coast, 105 miles
below Jacksonville. On the way the railway passes

22 A NATURE WOOING.

St. Augustine, the first European settlement in the
United States, and the most noted place in the his-
tory of Florida. I see little of it, however, for I ain
seeking not the history of man's past, not his society
in the present, but health and a knowledge of some
of nature's object which dwell in this sunny southern
clime.

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AT ORMOND BY THE SEA.

" They were pleasant spring days in which the winter of man's dis-
content was thawing as well as the earth, and the life that had lain torpid
began to stretch itself."— Thoreau.

We reach Ormond at one o'clock p. m., and I am
met at the station, a third of a mile from the town,
by Mr. Harrison Bristol, a gentleman who is expect-
ing me. A tram-car, the motive power of which is
one blind horse, is waiting for passengers. The
driver to-day is an elegantly dressed lady, probably
one of the guests of the Ormond Hotel, the great inn
a mile distant, between which and the railway station
the single tram-car runs. She keeps the horse a-jog-
ging by clucking and striking him with the lines,
while the conductor collects the fares.

Ormond is a pleasant town of 600 population, a
large proportion of the dwellings being the winter
cottages Df northern residents. Its main, and prac-
tically its only, street runs north and south and is
nearly a mile in length. Along the western side of
this the houses are scattered, facing the Halifax
River, a tide-water stream, or rather elongated bay,
the mouth of which, Mosquito Inlet, opens into the
Atlantic seventeen miles below. Opposite the town

(23)

24 A NATURE WOOING.

the river is nearly half a mile wide. On its farther
side is a long peninsula or narrow stretch of land, a
third to a half mile in width, on the eastern side of
which is the beach line of the Atlantic. This penin-
sula extends from Mosquito Inlet northward to Har-
wood, five miles above Ormond, where it unites with
the main land. A substantial bridge crosses the river
at Ormond, and at its eastern end, or on the east bank
of the Halifax opposite the town, is the Ormond Ho-
tel, one of the famous hostelries owned and operated
by the East Florida Railway Company. At the hotel
the prices range from $5 per day upward, so I con-
tent myself with a room in the modest cottage of Mr.
Bristol, in the town proper, and arrange for meals at
a nearby boarding house.

An unusually heavy frost, a few weeks before my
arrival, killed many fruit trees and all the early
vegetables. The bay trees, magnolias, cabbage pal-
mettos and other shrubs and trees indigenous to the
region have withstood its blighting touch, and the
semi-tropical aspect given to vegetation by their fo-
liage is delightful to one just from the north where
all is yet brown and sere. Peach trees are in full
blossom, and the fragrance of the flowers of the yel-
low jessamine is most pleasing. The songs, chirps
and calls of mocking birds, chewinks, brown thrushes,
blue jays and crows, greet me on every side. The
sounds and odors of May 10th or thereabouts in cen-
tral Indiana surround me.

THE SA W PALMETTO. 25

After removing some of the dust and grime of
travel, refreshing the inner man and disposing of my
baggage, I set out northward on a short tour of ex-
ploration. The houses, for the most part, are on
large lots, and possess extensive lawns filled with
shrubbery and flowers. At the end of the street
the roadway enters at once the unfenced forest and
continues thus for miles northward. These woods
bordering the river, as well as all others which after-
ward came to my notice, excepting the pine-barrens,
are not clear and open like most of those in the north-
ern states, but are so filled with tropical undergrowth
that one can scarcely force his way through them.
Fully eighty per cent, of this undergrowth in the
vicinity of Ormond is composed of the saw palmetto,
Serenoa serrulata Hook. Its creeping stem branches
and ramifies in every direction just beneath the sur-
face. The large, circular, fan-shaped leaves, with
many sharp teeth along the edges of their petioles,
rise at short intervals from the joints of the under-
ground stem and reach a height of two to four feet.
Their teeth clutch and tear at one's clothing at every
onward step. Covering, as the leaves do, almost
every square foot of surface, they present a most
formidable obstacle to persons desiring to penetrate
the forest. These leaves have a strong fiber and their
blades are used in filling mattresses. The flowers
furnish fine bee pasturage. The root is said to be
rich in tannin; while the black drupes or berries,

26

A NATURE WOOING.

three-fourths of an inch in length, are gathered in
quantity by the natives and sold to parties who use
them in the preparation of medicine. They are said
also to be a favorite food of bears.

About the only animal form which I note on this
initial trip is a chamseleon, Anolis carolinensis Cuv.,
on the under surface of one of the leaves of the saw
palmettto, his hue as bright a green as that of his
resting place. I watch him a short time, and he, in
turn, blinks and stares at me. His agility finally
saves him from 'a consignment to my alcohol bottle,
and I turn backward as the dusk of the coming night
settles around me.

Fig. 3— Southern Mocking-bird.

(After Judd.)

March 5, 1899. — The Sabbath morn breaks cloudy
and sultry, and about seven o'clock the rain begins to

SOUTHERN CROWS. 27

fall heavily, preventing that out-door exercise which
I so badly need. The song of the brown thrush and
the southern mocking bird are the sounds which are
first impressed upon my awakening senses. Mingled
with them is the loud "char"-"char" of the zebra
woodpecker, Melanerpes carolinus L. Yellowham-
mers or flickers are also abundant, and their cackle
is heard incessantly ; not "on, the hillsides," as noted
by Thoreau, for there are no hills, but seemingly
everywhere in the early morn.

On my way to breakfast I note a gray squirrel,
Sciurus carolinensis Gmelin, frisking and jumping
along the fence of an unused town lot. It is a third
smaller, and has its upper surface more varied with
tawny or yellowish brown, than the northern variety,
leucotis. This is the only truly arboreal squirrel
found near Ormond, and is very common hereabouts
according to the statement of mine host.

A flock of crows numbering a hundred or more
settle, as I write, in the pines along the river bank
and on the remains of the old pier jutting out into
the stream. They utter at intervals a peculiar low,
short croak resembling the syllables "kah," "kah."
This differs much from the more prolonged, harsher
"c-a-w" of their northern brethren. It may be that
some fish crows, Corvus ossifragus Wilson, mingle
with the common Corvus americanus and utter the
short, soft call. It is impossible to determine this
without specimens in hand. As the rain begins to

28 A NATURE WOOING.

fall the entire flock rapidly departs for the shelter of
the woodland.

Soon after noon the rain ceases and I start once
more along the roadway northward, my destination
being a large shell mound about a mile from the cen-
ter of the town, over the slope of which the road
passes. From this mound has been obtained for
years the material for the sidewalks of Ormond. It
is located within a few rods of the Halifax River,
and covers an area 1,136 feet in length; the width
varying from 144 to 362 feet. The greatest thickness
or height above the surrounding plain is ten feet.
The soil covering the surface of the mound is very
rich, and on it grow many magnificent specimens of
cabbage palmettos, live oaks and other trees. It is a
kitchen midden, or refuse heap of some ancient peo-
ple, composed of a number of species of shells, pieces
of pottery, bones of various animals, ashes, charcoal,
etc. I shall make many pilgrimages to it during my
stay and will give a detailed description of it here-
after. The above facts are mentioned in this connec-
tion in order that the reader may know something
of its character when reference is made to it on the
pages which follow.

On my way to and from the mound this afternoon
I make a number of side excursions a short distance
into the woods on either side of the roadway. From
beneath some chunks of decaying palmetto, I secure
several specimens of a very large myriapod. A pine

AT ORMOND BY THE SEA.

29

log yields a few small beetles of the family Hister-
idae, and its stump, when the loose bark is pulled
away, reveals a number of large wingless cock-
roaches, most of which were dead, probably from
the effects of the recent frost. They are afterwards
identified as Eurycotis ingens
Scudder — the largest and most
ill-smelling blattid I have ever
collected. Two scorpions, a num-
ber of minute pseudo-scorpions,
Chelifer muricatus Say, and sev-
eral examples of an earwig,
Labia burgessi Scudd., are se-
cured beneath the bark of the
same stump.

The young of a very slender
bodied brown grasshopper, Rha-
dinotatum brevipenne Thos., are found to be frequent
on the scattering sedges and grasses in such small
open places as are bare of the saw palmetto.
A single butterfly, flitting along the road close
to the ground, is netted and found to be an old ac-
quaintance, Eudamus pylades Scudder, the dusky
wing. With the exception of six or seven small hya-
line white spots arranged in three groups on each
fore-wing, it is a uniform dark brown in color. The
antennae are spindle-shaped, with the apical half more
slender and bent abruptly downward. The wing ex-
panse is one and a half inches. It is quite common

Fig. 4— A Pseudo-scor-
pion.

(Oremtlj enlarged.)

30 A NATURE WOOING.

in the northern states in June and July, the larvse
feeding on clover and allied plants. I afterward took
a number of additional specimens near Ormond.

March 6, 1899. — The morning dawns clear and
cool. I spend the forenoon entomologizing, follow-
ing a forest roadway in its many turns. Dragonflies
are plentiful, Trained Carolina L., a medium sized
species with large brown spots on the base of the sec-
ondaries, being exceedingly so. Next to this in
abundance is Anax junius Drury, a large form with

Fig. 5— The Giant Swallow-tail.

Papilio cresphontes Cram.
(Three-fifths natural size.)

head and thorax grass green. Darting hither and
thither in the bright March sunshine, they are this
morning the most brilliant creatures of the air on
the wing.

SOME FLORIDA BUTTERFLIES. 31

Among the butterflies, Papilio turnus L. and P.
ores phonies Cram, are seen, but escape the net.
Three species are captured, viz., Papilio troilus L.,
Agraulis vanillce L., and a small earth-loving form,
Neonympha sosybius Fab. From other members of
its group it is known by its being a uniform wood
brown above, while below the wings are crossed by
two narrow reddish brown lines. Near the hind bor-
der of the under side of the fore-wings are one or two
black eye spots ringed with yellow and pupilled with
pale blue, and each hind wing bears two or three sim-
ilar spots. Like all others of its genus it is a wood-
land sprite, flitting ever close to Mother Earth in
ceaseless, restless flight.

Three species of locusts are noted. One, Schis-
tocerca americana Drury, common in the north, flew
with prolonged zigzag flight into the top of an osage-
orange tree where, like a squirrel, it dodged around
the side of the branch when approached, and so es-
caped the net. Two specimens of Arphia granulata
Sauss. and several of a sharp-headed, brown-bodied
form, AmUytropidia occidentalis Sauss., were se-
cured.

In the afternoon a strong, cold wind blows from
the west. I cross the river and the peninsula beyond
to the ocean's beach. Before me the Atlantic
stretches eastward, blue and unbroken to the shores
of Africa. The wind blows off shore, and except for
the sight and roar of the surf I would not know the

32 A NATURE WOOING.

sea was there. No odor of salt water, no sign of sea-
weed greets me. The beach is a hard, unbroken mass
of reddish yellow sand, with only here and there the
valve of a sea shell or the body of a giant sea squid
to break its monotony. Not a pebble, not a sign of
fish, not a rock for the waves to dash upon ; how dif-
ferent from the beach of the same ocean along New
England's rock-bound coast!

The ever-present fish hawks, Pandion hcdicetus L.,
great, unwieldy bodied birds, fly in pairs, close down
to the incoming surf, seeking with eagle eye a supper
in its depths. Flocks of a curious little "shore
walker" or sand piper follow in a peculiar running
gait every retreating wave; then turn about and re-
treat as rapidly before each advancing one.

A solitary steamer of small size, southward bound,
about half a mile from shore, is the only vessel in
sight. After an hour the whole scene becomes mo-
notonous in the extreme and, on account of the sharp
wind which catches up and carries outward clouds of
sand from the inner edge of the beach, very disagree-
able.

March 7, 1899. — This morning the mercury marks
the freezing point, and the same wind, cold and dis-
agreeable, blows from the northwest. I wear an
overcoat to breakfast, and at nine o'clock don it again
and start forth in search of insects. In a deserted
orange grove, where the dead, thorny snags of former
prosperous growing trees are sad evidence of the

AT ORMOND BY THE SEA.

frosts of the past few winters, I spend most of the
time till noon. The hardened, spine clad involucres
of last season's sand burs, Cenchrus tribuloides L.,
are very numerous and give me much trouble by ad-
hering to the net every time I sweep it close to the
ground. From the dunes along Lake Michigan to the
sandy plains of south Florida this weed produces its
annual crop of troublesome armored involucres.
Linnaeus must have pricked his finger with one of
its barbed spines when he called it tribuloides. 'Tis
well named, being a tribulation, indeed, to bare-
footed boys and butterfly hunters.

As on yester-
day, three or
four species of
dragonflies are
plentiful. Five
specimens of one
small, dark
brown form, Di-
placodes minus-
cula Rarnb., are
captured close to
the ground from
steins of weeds

and grass on which they alight. The others fly too
high and too swiftly up and down the roadway.
What are they hawking for on such a day as this is

Fig. 6— The Buckeye Butterfly.

Junonla ccenia Hub.

(After French.)

34 A NATURE WOOING.

to me a mystery, for I see no sign of mosquito or
other dragonfly tid-bit in the cold raw air.

Of butterflies I note another old friend, the giant
swallowtail, Papilio cresphontes Cram., but it, too, is
propelled onward by the stiff breeze too rapidly for
me. Two worn and be-draggled specimens of the
buckeye butterfly, Junonia >ccenia Hub., alone are
captured. Both it and cresphontes range as far north-
ward as northern Indiana, though both are scarce in
that State.

Over a sandy stretch in the old orchard I find the
locusts common ; among them the ArpJiia taken yester-
day, as well as a handsome, parti-colored species,
Scirtettica picta Scudd. The male of this usually
flies a long distance when flushed, making, while on
the wing, a noise like the buzzing of a very angry
bumble bee. The female is more sluggish, and noise-
less in its flight. The common, green-striped grass-
hopper of the north, Chortophaga viridifasciata De
Geer., is also present in numbers on the sand covered
earth. Its hues are, however, so different that I do
not recognize it, and think it an undescribed form un-
til I reach the house and consult Scudder's table of
variation of the northern and southern forms. On a
patch of green weeds I find a pair of wingless, bright
green locusts — the tegmina being represented only
by narrow, oblong, whitish yellow scales. They leap
clumsily when disturbed. They prove to be examples
of Aptenopedes spJienarioides Scudder, a species

AT ORMOND BY THE SEA. 35

known only from Florida. On a dead clump of grass
in a neighboring field I take a brown male of the
same species, so that it, like many other acridians,
seeks a place of hiding with which it agrees in color.
There, as long as motionless, it is quite secure from
the eyes of those birds and reptiles which are ever on
the search for a juicy locust.

Thus, though the wind continues to blow strongly
and the air is so cold that I shiver when standing
still for any time, I find, by persevering search, forms
of interest in this old orange orchard, and trudge
homeward, well satisfied with my morning's outing.

March 8, 1899. — Another day dawns, clear, breezy
and cold — four degrees below the freezing point.
One feels the chill much more here than in the north,
especially after enjoying a few days of warm weather.
Wrapped in our overcoats, Mr. B. and I sallied forth,
he armed with rifle to bring down any squirrel which
may be foolish enough to venture out on such a day ;
I, with butterfly net, to swoop in the more foolish in-
sects, if any such I meet. Our destination was some
old Spanish chimneys in the hammock about two
miles west of Ormond.

As the term "hammock"* will be frequently used
hereafter, a definition of it will not be amiss at this
point. In the Gulf and South Atlantic states it re-
fers to any area whose soil is other than sand. If a

•'Preferably "hummock," according to the Century Dictionary,
though invariably "hammock" in Florida.

36 A NATURE WOOING.

"high hammock/' its general level is a few feet above
the surrounding marshes. If a "low hammock," it is
a marsh or swale. In either case it is usually under-
lain with marl or coquina rock, and covered with a
rich vegetable mold. These hammocks form the rich-
est portions of Florida. On them, or in them, grow
all the hardwood timber. In contra-distinction to the
hammocks are the "barrens" or "pine lands," whose
soil is of sand alone or of sand mixed with a small
percentage of marine salts and organic matter.
Humus, or vegetable mold, is the needed constituent
of the barrens. It is always present in quantity in
the hammocks. Hence the latter, when cleared of
their timber and cultivated, are profusely productive
of almost every kind of vegetable. Such land, when
cleared within two miles of Ormond, sells readily at
$100 or more per acre, whereas the sand-covered
land can be had for one-tenth that sum, and for the
most part is dear at any price. The underlying marl
and cemented mass of sea shells seem to yield con-
stantly certain elements which find their way to the
surface of the hammock and form an abundance of
plant food. The soil can, therefore, be used for
years, whereas two or three seasons are sufficient to
deplete the sandy soils of what little organic matter
they possess.

Soon after starting, Mr. B. shot a pileated wood-
pecker, or log cock, Ceophlceus pileatus L., from the
top of a dead cabbage palmetto. It is a male, some-

PI. IV

ONE OF THE OLD SPANISH CHIMNEYS.

OLD SPANISH CHIMNEYS. 3?

what smaller than the northern form of the same
species. This diminution in size is noticeable in the
blue jays, crows, squirrels and many other birds and
mammals hereabouts.

The road led between deserted orange groves,
where many thousands of dollars have been lost by
unlucky northern investors. The "cracker/' or na-
tive of Florida, knows better than to invest time and
money in orange groves in this portion \of the State,
where King Frost is apt to reign supreme one or
more times each winter. The cracker is not averse,
however, to selling his cleared hammock lands for fab-
ulous prices to the tyro from the north who wishes to
set out orange orchards.

The old Spanish chimneys are much visited by the
aristocracy who stop at the great Hotel de Ormond.
To them they go in rubber-tired carriages or on horse-
back, never afoot. At them they gaze, and marvel
o'er these monuments of a dead and misty past. The
chimneys are three in number, each about twenty feet
in height. One is formed of coquina rock, the other
two, of brick. The latter are still connected with the
remains of furnaces in which, 200 years ago, the
juices of the indigo plant and sugar cane were boiled.
The hammock on which they stand was then cleared
and doubtless produced bounteous crops. 7Tis now
covered with a dense growth of cabbage palmettos,
saplings and underbrush.

38

A NATURE WOOING.

These remains of old Spanisli settlements are
found in various parts of Florida. They were noted
by Bartram more than a century ago, he writing of
them as follows:* "We passed four or five miles
through old Spanish fields. There are to be seen
plain marks or vestiges of the old plantations and

dwellings; as fence
posts and wooden
pillars of their
houses, chimneys,
ditches, and even
corn ridges and ba-
tata hills. From the
Indian accounts,
the Spaniards had
here a rich, well-
cultivated and popu-

Fig. 7— Long-billed Marsh Wren. loUS Settlement, and

a strong fortified

post, as they likewise had at the savanna and fields of
Capola, but either of them far inferior to one they
had some miles farther southwest toward the Apala-
chuchla River, now called the Apalachean Old
Fields, where yet remain vast works and buildings,
as fortifications, temples, some brass cannon, mortars,
heavy church bells, etc."

These various Spanish settlements probably

* Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West
Florida, etc., 1793, p. 231.

GROUND DOVES.

39

reached their greatest prosperity in the early part of
the eighteenth century. About the middle of that
century they were deserted on account of imbroglios
between Spain and other nations, as well as the hos-
tility of the Indians. Bartram's work was, therefore,
written a half century after their abandonment.

On the way back from the old chimneys I noted the
long-billed marsh wren, Cistothorm palusiris Wilson,
and the Maryland yel-
low throat, GeotJilypis
trichas L. — both old
northern acquaint-
ances — flitting about
the weedy margins of
a marsh. Flocks of
turtle doves were also
seen, but they appear
to be less common here
than the ground dove,

Columbigattina passerina L. The first part of this
long scientific name signifies "pigeon" and "hen,"
and the latter part, "like a sparrow," the dove par-
taking of the characteristics of all three of these
well-known birds. They are but little larger than
the English sparrow, greyish olive glossed with blue
above; the male with the head and breast wine col-
ored. Settling down in the streets and the back
yards, they search for food, bill and coo, almost re-
gardless of the presence of man. Bartram mentions

Fig. 8— Ground Doves.

40 A NATURE WOOING.

them as follows: "Catesby's ground doves are also
here in abundance; they are remarkably beautiful
and their soft and plaintive cooing perfectly en-
chanting.

How chaste the dove ! ' Never known to violate the con-
jugal contract.'

She flees the seats of envy and strife, and seeks the retired
paths of peace."*

Among the hard woods growing in the edges of the
"low hammocks/7 I noted the following northern
forms: Bitter-nut, Hicoria minima Marsh; sweet-
gum, Liquidambar styraciflua L., and the wild black
cherry, Prunus serotina Ehrh. ISTone of these, how-
ever, seem to reach the size they do in the north.

Near the edge of the town we saw a native woman
busily engaged in doing the family washing. The
clothes are dipped in a tub of water, then placed on a
block of wood and pounded with a club.

In the afternoon I went again to the old orange or-
chard in search of insects. A little black and brown
ground cricket, Nemobius ambitiosus Scudd., I found
to be frequent among dead leaves and short grass
along hedge rows and borders of the forest. It is
smaller and more handsome than our common north-
ern form, N. fasciatus vittaius. The face is jet black,
with a narrow, widtish-yellow transverse line just be-
low the base of the antennae, while the femora bear

*Loc. cit., p. 8.

AT O&MOND ST THE SEA.

4i

lengthwise bands of black. Otherwise the color is a
reddish brown, though a few males are almost wholly
black. I afterwards found it quite
common and, at this season of the
year, the only species of Nemobius
about Ormond. The first speci-
men of a large butterfly, Papilio
palamedes Drury, which was also
afterwards taken in numbers, was
secured.

March 0, 1899.— To-day the
sun shines from a cloudless sky, as
it does on most days here, but to
me it matters little whether it
shines or no, for the old pain at
base of brain is present in full
force. I cross the river and the
peninsula for a stroll along the
ocean's margin at low tide. Be-
fore me, blue, blue, a dull, slaty
blue, the waters roll. Xo sail, no
bird, no sign of life ! Here and there, far out, a
white cap flecks the surface for an instant — then
vanishes. ?Tis like some human lives — rising by
long endeavor for a brief moment above the common
vulgar wave — then, sinking forever to the level. It
is ever thus. The day of despair f olloweth the day of
hope. The morn may break ever so fair ; our ship,
with all sails set, moving steadily forward on what

Fig. 9— Ground
Cricket.

yemobiu* 'atciatu* vittatut

Harris.
(Female, twice natural «iz«.

A NATURE WOOING.

seems a most prosperous voyage. Before nightfall
the waves of adversity beat about us and we are lost;
wrecked on some unthought of — unheard of — shore.
The roar and surge of the incoming tide are alone
borne to my ear — a dull, monotonous sound in the
calm of midday. My companion stops to gather a
few quarts of living "coquina clams," Donax varicu-
bilis Say. At low tide they are found in numbers but
an inch or two below the surface of the sand. He
puts them into a perforated iron basin and, by,shak-
ing them to and fro in the pools of water, cleanses
them of sand. They are used extensively for mak-
ing soup, being boiled, shells and all, the liquid then
separated by straining. Here and there a sea snail,
Polinices duplicate Say, has thrown up a mole-like
burrow of sand a yard
or two in length. By
a kick of the foot it is
easily dislodged from
the end of its burrow.
This mollusk is very
common along this por-
tion of the Atlantic
coast. The empty
shells of it and other
species are often inhabited by the hermit crab,
Eupagurnus bernhardus Desm., and its allies. As
the crabs increase in size they exchange the smaller
shells for larger ones.

Fig. 10— Hermit Crab in shell of Sea
Snail.

T&E SEA BEACH Al ORMOND. 43

The ocean, kingly at times in its majestic power, is
to-day wonderfully calm and meek. The surf runs
low, the waves breaking on the outer bar, some fifty
yards from the water's edge, then flowing peacefully
inward. Inch by inch, each one comes nearer and
nearer, until in time they will reach and pass be-
yond the spot where I now sit. At present one hun-
dred yards of sand, at first whitish ; nearer the water,
brownish-red, intervenes between me and their edge.

The rich man, his wife and children, stop at the
great hotel; pay $5 each per day for board, and when
they wish an outing order a carriage, wrap them-
selves in woolens and furs, and ride haughtily along
the beach, seeing little beauty in the ocean, less in the
land. The poor man, clad in homely frock, walks, in-
dependent and free, needing no wraps, his exercise
furnishing bodily heat in excess. He breathes great
volumes of the invigorating sea air and rejoices that
he can pass a few days along these shores. Which of
the two is the happier?

March 10, 1899. — The morning cloudy, and by ten
o'clock very sultry. I start west from Ormond, going
back among the hammocks. In the outskirts of the
village, near an old deserted blacksmith shop, I find
beneath boards a number of specimens of a large, flat,
bluish-green centipede, Scolopendra morsitans L.,
which is very Common in this vicinity. Its bite is re-
puted to be poisonous, but I can find no one who
knows by experience whether this is true or not. In

44 A NATURE WOOING.

a decaying palmetto log I secure two mature speci-
mens of a small cockroach, Ceratinoptera lutea
Sauss.-Zehnt. This I have seen twice before, but
have not been able to capture until to-day. It seems
to occur rarely about palmetto logs and beneath rub-
bish. In color it is brownish yellow, flecked with
dusky on the pronotum. The wings just reach the
end of the abdomen and the total length of the body
is less than one-third of an inch.

But few of the large roaches, Eurycotis ingens Scud-
der, have as yet reached maturity. The young, how-
ever, are very common beneath rubbish and the bark
of stumps. It is my opinion that E. sabalina Scud-
der is but the immature form of E. ingens. It was
described at the same time,* the chief differences
noted being the total absence of tegmina and wings
and the presence of a rather broad band of yellow on
the margin of pronotum, mesanotum and part of
metanotum. All the young of E. ingens possess these
characteristics, the yellow band disappearing in the
final moult.

Beneath a board I also find two specimens of the
small greyish-brown ground lizard, Oligosoma lat-
er ale Say, one minus its tail, the other with what ap-
pears to be a reproduced tail, a bright red in color.
This species occurs as far north as southern Indiana,
but is there rare.

Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat, Hist., XIX, 1877, pp. 92, 93.

THE SURFACE OF NORTHEAST FLORIDA. 45

A female of that small and handsome, blue-winged
yellow warbler, Helminthophila pinus L., is seen in
the underbrush along a sandy roadway. It feeds
fearlessly on a low shrub within ten feet of me, and
once flits to the ground for some morsel which it espies
from above.

Crossing the railway, I enter the low hammock
region — a large, marshy tract covered with a dense
growth of cabbage palmetto and swamp-loving under-
brush, and containing numerous pools of blackish
water scattered through it. Indeed, so little is the re-
gion about Ormond and, for that matter, all north-
eastern Florida, raised above the level of the sea, that
were the land depressed ten or twelve feet below
low water mark, the ocean would once more assert its
sway over the larger portion, leaving exposed only
narrow ridges along the coast and low islands inland.
At present, extensive areas are under water through-
out the year, and the surface is made up of an im-
mense number of ponds, creeks, lagoons and swamps,
intermingled with pine-barrens, hammocks covered
with hardwood growth, chaparrals of saw palmetto,
and wet marshes overgrown with tall reeds or rank
grass.

In places, tracts of the low hammocks west of Or-
niond have been cleared, partially drained, and culti-
vated— formerly in oranges, now in vegetables. A
darkey is plowing in one of the small fields, using a
single horse. Following in his furrow I find a num-

46 A NATURE WOOING.

ber, most of which are dead, of that curious snail,
Polygyra auriculata Say. It is known only from
Florida, and is readily distinguished
, by the great development of the
parts about the aperture, which are
so formed as to somewhat resemble
an ear, whence the specific name.
Fig. 11. Beneath the rubbish near the mar-

^ of fofe cleared tract I also take
numerous specimens of Physa pomi-
lia Conrad, and a very large ex-
ample of millipede, Spirobolus spinigerus Wood,
which the darkey said was sometimes so common
that he could gather a hat full.

Asking him about lizards, he said there is one
about eight inches long, with red head and large ears,
which lives beneath logs — "but, O Lawd, boss, I'se
af eared to touch him." He probably referred to old
specimens of Eumeces fasciatus L., a very common
lizard hereabouts. Speaking of the centipede, Scol-
opendra morsitans, he said : "It's all day wiz 'yon-all
if one of them air centipedes strikes you.'7 When
asked if their bite killed a person, he said, "Xo, but it
makes 'im sick fer a month."

March 11, 1899. — To-day, one week ago, I arrived
in the "Land of Flowers." At this season of the year
it belies its name. Few are the flowers which I have
seen. 7Tis a land of sunshine, but too often the icy
breath of King Boreas sweeps down and pinches with

A GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLET.

47

unusual vigor the fingers and toes of the unprepared
residents.

This morning the sun rises bright from old ocean's
bed. The birds in full chorus greet its appearance.
Crows call with that peculiar low "kah" character-
istic of them here. Blue jays utter their shrill, quer-
ulous cry on every side. In the bay tree in the back
yard a golden-crowned kinglet, Eegulus satrapa Lich.,

Fig. 12— Golden-crowned Kinglet.

scolds in a peculiar wheezing tone — a scold resem-
bling the subdued note of a hen's cackle. It hops as it
scolds, here and there, industriously picking mean-
while at whatever appears good to eat on the ends of
the branches.

In the old orange orchard I to-day secure several

48 A NATURE WOOING.

examples of a large locust, Schistocerca damnificum
Sauss. It is closely allied to 8. alutacea Harris, but
the antennae of the male are shorter and the yellow
line along the middle of pronotum and tegmina is
much less prominent, while the notch at the apex of
sub-genital plate of the same sex is narrowly V-
shaped, rather than broadly U-shaped as in alutacea.
Many specimens of damnificum are flushed from
clumps of a coarse brown bunch grass the exact color
of its body. They fly long distances to limbs of pine
or other trees, around which they dodge, and from
which they are taken with the hand. The Tryxalid,
Amblytropidia occidentalis Sauss., once before men-
tioned, has become common in this old orchard. It,
too, occurs only in the clumps of brown grass, which
give it protection on account of its hue. This grass
is, for the most part, overgrown with tangled masses
of smilax, so that operations are necessarily slow and
arduous. When aroused these locusts fly always to a
clump of the same grass and dive into it, burrowing
down among the roots until they are most difficult to
find, so that I lose more than I take.

That large and handsome sulphur-colored butter-
fly, Callidryas eubule L., is just emerging. I note a
number of them to-day, but they fly wild and I secure
but one male. It ranges from central Indiana, where,
in August, I have taken it in numbers on the sand
hills along the "Wabash River, southward and west-
ward to southern California — a vast territory for so

AT ORMOND BY THE SEA. 49

frail an insect to have covered. But the various
species of Cassia, or wild senna, on the foliage of
which the larvae feed, occur over the same range,
and so have rendered possible the spread of the in-
sect.

In the vicinity of Ormond artesian sulphur water
is obtained at a depth of 150 feet ; rising four to six
feet above the surface when the vein is tapped. But
few springs or shallow wells are found, cistern water
being mostly used where the artesian bores have not
been sunk.

March 12, 1899. — Three days ago I wore an over-
coat, heavy winter underwear, and sought the sun.
To-dav I am dressed in thinnest garb at my command
and seek the shade. Such is the change wrought in
the temperature of the air about me by the unequal
heating of certain portions of the atmosphere sur-
rounding this earth of ours and a consequent shift-
ing of those portions. Three days ago great vol-
umes of cool air came rushing down from the north.
To-day they are replaced by other volumes rushing
up from the south. Too few people realize that a
change in temperature is but a change in that por-
tion of the atmospheric ocean which surrounds them ;
great waves of cold air from another part of that
ocean descending and pushing out the warm, or ris-
ing into other regions to fill a vacuum, and allowing
waves of warm air to take their place.

50 A NATURE WOOING.

As with the winds, or waves of air, so with the
drifting tides of a man's life. A year ago I was
happy and contented with those I love in the far
north. To-day 'tis Florida's sky, bright and beauti-
ful, above me. Next year, it may be Greenland's;
cold, cheerless and forbidding. What matters it —
the world wags on. The memory of happier days
will cling — can not be shaken off. Then —

" Here's a sigh to those who love me,

And a smile to those who hate ;
And whatever sky's above me,
Here's a heart for every fate."

To-day the sand burs stick closer than a brother ;
likewise the wood ticks. I distribute both from one
field to another.

The first tiger-beetle which I have seen flits from
point to point before me on the sandy woodland path.
I finally succeed in casting my net over it before it
can arise, and find it to be a male of Cidndela uni-
color Dej., two-fifths of an inch in length and a uni-
form dark blue in color, with the exception of the
labrum and base of mandibles, which are ivory white.
The female, taken at a later date, is dark green in
hue, with the mandibles wholly black. Beetles of all
kinds seem scarce here at this season. It appears
that, notwithstanding the quite uniform temperature
which prevails, for the most part, throughout the
year, the dry season, which corresponds to the win-

THE AMERICAN LOCUST. 51

ter months, causes a disappearance of most forms of
insect life. With the coming of March they begin
gradually to reappear, but there is no spring flight
of beetles, and those which pass the dry season in the
perfect or imago stage seem to be much fewer in
number than in the north, where I have taken three
hundred and more species thus hibernating.* It is
said that not until the beginning of the wet season,
in the latter part of May, do the majority of the sum-
mer fauna of Coleoptera and other orders of insects
begin to make their appearance in Florida.

Large numbers of the American locust, Schisto-
cerca americana Drury, have now reached maturity.
When flushed they are most difficult to capture, mov-

Fig. 13 — American Grasshopper.

Schistocerca americana Dru.
(Male.)

ing in rapid, rollicking flight to tree or tall shrub
and alighting usually far above the reach of my net.
It was probably from such a source as this that the
large numbers of mature specimens blown into In-

*S«e Psyche, 18%, p. 336, et aeq.t for an annotated list of 286 of these.

52 A NATURE WOOING.

diana on April 11, 1893, started on their long serial
journey.*

Chamseleons run swiftly over the earth, making a
rustling noise as they scurry through the dead leaves
and grass.

The long, gray, epiphytic moss, TiMandsia usmoi-
des L., is very common in all the lower portions of
east Florida, f It is one of a half dozen or more species
of the same genus which abound in the State, but
the only one with filiform, pendent stems and green
flowers. Its scurfy and hoary clusters, swinging to
and fro with every passing breeze, give a tinge of des-
olation to the surroundings, of the low hammocks and
cause a deeper sense of solitude and loneliness in the
mind of the wandering naturalist who invades their
midst. As far back as 1793, Bartram wrote of it, as
follows: "The long moss, so called, is a singular and
surprising vegetable production; it grows from the
limbs and twigs of all trees in these southern regions.
Wherever it fixes itself, on a limb or branch, it
spreads into short and intricate divarications ; these
in time collect dust, wafted by the wind, which, prob-
ably by the moisture it absorbs, softens the bark and
sappy part of the tree, about the roots of the plant,
and renders it more fit for it to establish itself ; and
from this small beginning, it increases, by sending

*See Psyche, June 1893, p. 465; also the author's "Gleanings from Na-
ture," p. 238.

tFestoons of this moss are shown in the frontispiece, hanging from
the branches above the cabin.

THE SPANISH MOSS. 53

downward and obliquely, on all sides, long pendent
branches, which divide and subdivide themselves ad
infinitum. It is common to find the spaces betwixt
the limbs of large trees almost occupied by this
plant ; it also hangs waving in the wind, like stream-
ers, from the lower limbs, to the length of fifteen or
twenty feet, and of bulk and weight, more than sev-
eral men together could carry; and in some places,
cart loads of it are lying on the ground, torn off by
the violence of the wind. Any part of the living
plant, torn off and caught in the limb of a tree, will
presently take root, grow and increase, in the same
degree of perfection, as if it had sprung up from the
seed. When fresh, cattle and deer will eat it in the
winter season. It seems particularly adapted to the
purpose of stuffing mattresses, chairs, saddles, collars,
etc. ; and for these purposes nothing yet known equals
it."

That the use of this moss in upholstery has become
a prominent industry is shown by the following ex-
tract from a recent Government publication: "The
long moss, when gathered by men known as 'swamp-
ers/ is piled up and allowed to rot for ten or twelve
months. It loses in this process about ninety per
cent, of its weight, and is then shipped to the fac-
tories, where it is cleaned, dried and ginned, the final
product being a hard, black elastic filament, greatly
resembling horse hair. This is used in upholstering,
either alone or mixed with hair. Six moss factories

54 A NATURE WOOING.

are located in New Orleans, and two others at Pensa-
cola, Florida. The six factories at New Orleans re-
ceived, during the last year, 3,500 bales of rough
moss, weighing 10,000,000 pounds, and valued at
$315,000. A considerable amount, however, is
ginned in the country and shipped direct to con-
sumers, or is prepared by the consumers themselves.
Persons most familiar with the volume of this indus-
try estimate that the value of the prepared moss gath-
ered annually in Louisiana, the principal region of
supply, is not far from $550,000. The amount gath-
ered, however, varies considerably from year to year.
Moss can only be profitably collected at times of high
floods, when the swamps are navigable to small boats,
and the moss, hanging from the branches of the trees,
can be easily gathered. The wages earned by the
swampers, too, are not large, and the gathering of
moss is only resorted to when more profitable em-
ployment upon farms can not be obtained."

March 13, 1899. — 'Tis hot, hotter than ordinary
March days here, say the old residents. During my
walk to the hammocks beyond the railway I have
chewed the bitter cud of memory, a memory of a past
when life was all before me and false friends were
not mine. Then I had no favors to bestow. As soon
as one possesses such favors he begins to make ene-
mies. Without them he awakens not jealous conten-
tions and fierce fights for plunder. He can walk
forth, a free man, happy in his poverty, contented

GIANT CLICK BEETLES.

55

in his thought. Experience has taught me, as
it will every man in time, that health and content-
ment are the two most precious gifts vouchsafed to
mortal man during his brief sojourn here on earth.
They alone- make up what the average person calls
"happiness here below."

Tearing off the bark from the base of a rotten pine
stump I make my first capture of the morning — a fe-
male of the large southern Ela-
terid, or click beetle, Alaus my ops
Fabr. It is one and one-half
inches in length, and is the sec-
ond largest representative of its
family occurring in the United
States, being exceeded only by A.
oculatus L., which ranges farther
north. A female of the latter
species from Indiana measures
one and three-quarters inches.
The males of both species are
smaller, averaging but little over
an inch in length. A. my ops is
dark brown, clouded with ash gray, and the eye-like
velvet spots on the pro-thorax are dim and narrowly
oval ; whereas oculatus is black, sprinkled here and
there with silver gray, and has the eye spots round
and prominent. The larval stage of both is passed in
decaying oak, apple and pine wood.

The members of the family Elateridce, of which
A. myops and A. oculatus are the giant representa-

Fig. 14.

Alan* oculatus I,.

56 A NATURE WOOING.

tives in this country, are commonly known as skip-
jacks, spring beetles, snapping beetles or snapping
bugs. They are very numerous, both in species and
in individuals, and the young of a number of them
are injurious, being the wire worms which prey upon
the roots of grass, corn, and other cereals. When
placed upon their backs all of these beetles have the
power of leaping into the air and turning over;
whence the common names above mentioned. This
power has brought them to the attention of many per-
sons who otherwise would have passed them by un-
noticed, and much wonder has doubtless been caused
as to how the leaping motion was brought about.
When the beetle, by accident or otherwise, finds itself
on its back, it folds its legs and antennae closely
against the body and for a time simulates death.
When it thinks the danger is over it bends back the
head and pro-thorax as far as possible. This action
lifts a spine attached to the hind margin of the pro-
sternum (under side of pro-thorax) out of a groove in
which it ordinarily rests. This groove is in the front
margin of the meso-sternum, and directly beneath the
bases of the elytra or outer wings. After withdraw-
ing this spine to its full extent, the muscles are sud-
denly relaxed, allowing the spine to descend violently
into the cavity. The force given by this sudden move-
ment causes the bases of the elytra to strike the earth
or other substance upon which they rest, and, by
their elasticity, the whole body is propelled upward

INSECTS AND THISTLES. 57

sometimes to a height of several inches. If, during
the act of rising and falling, the acrobat turns over
and alights on its feet, all is well. If not, the process
is repeated until it finally alights right side up with
care.

The spring flowers of this locality are beginning
to blossom. A dainty little Legume, with petals pink
and white, grows in abundance in the damp sand
along the railway. A large coarse-leaved thistle,
Carduus horridulus Pursh., is in bud and flower, with
one head mature. On its flowers are two specimens
of Papilio palamedes Drury, and a greenish bee. Be-
neath its bracts and in the angles of its upper leaves
are two species of Heteroptera, or true bugs, and
two of beetles, the most common of which is a small,
light brown snout beetle, Notolomus basalis Lee.
Both bugs and beetles appear in a dazed, or comatose,
condition. They have probably been sipping the
juices excreted from the glands on the outside of the
involucral scales. In the north, many beetles and
other insects become dazed or intoxicated by feeding
upon the excretion of similar glands on the involucral
scales of Carduus discolor Gray.*

One of the bugs taken on the thistle is Thyanta cus-
tator Fabr., a brownish green form, one-third of an
inch in length, which occurs throughout the United
States, but is more common in the south. It belongs
to the "stink-bug" tribe, whose members protect

* See Can. Ent., XXIV, 1892, p. 310.

58 A NATURE WOOING.

themselves by exuding a drop or two of liquid having
a very disagreeable odor, from two openings, one on
each side of the lower part of the body near the base
of the middle legs. Birds, and people, too, for that
matter, soon learn to avoid the bugs which excrete
this odor. Many a boy, while berry hunting in the
country, has clapped a number of berries into his
mouth, only to experience a smarting sensation and
a nauseating taste, brought about by the acidulous
liquid from the glands of a stink-bug which accom-
panied the berries. In this way, if in no other, the
boy learned the virtues of the protective principle
possessed by the stink-bug tribe, and future stink-
bugs, if not the one in the mouth, profited as a result.
Birds probably learn to avoid the use of stink-bugs
for food in much the same manner; though, like
many other traits of the lower
animals, this knowledge may
in them be instinctive rather
than acquired.

The second species of bug on
the thistle is Leptoglossus phyl-
lopus L., dark reddish brown in
color and three-fourths of an
inch in length. A distinct, narrow
whitish band crosses the outer
wings ; while the hind tibiae bear
broad, flattened, leaf-like projections, each with a
small white spot near its inner edge. This is a true

DOWN THE HALIFAX RIVER. 59

southern insect, and is thought to be beneficial, inas-
much as it' has been found feeding on its distant
cousin, the injurious harlequin cabbage bug Mur-
gantia Tiistrionica Halm. ; however, it is known to
injure cotton bolls and oranges.

In the afternoon I visit Captain Wardwell, the
owner of a small steamer which plies up and down
the Halifax River. He is a good observer of nature,
and showed me many interesting specimens. Among
them were part of a tusk, a tooth and several verte-
bra of a mastodon, Mastodon americanus Linn.,
taken in the marl beds underlying a nearby ham-
mock; also the "ear bones" of a whale, picked up on
the beach.

March 14, 1899. — This morn I arose at 5:30
o'clock, breakfasted at six and rode in an ice wagon
to Daytona, a village five miles below Ormond. Here
I took a gasoline launch with a party bound for Mos-
quito Inlet, at the mouth of the Halifax River. The
ride was a pleasant one. The lower part of the
river is dotted with many islands. On these grows in
profusion that curious tropical production, the man-
grove, Rliizophora mangle L., a small tree or shrub,
with obovate-oblong leathery leaves and seeds which
germinate within the fruit while the latter is still
hanging on the branch. The radicle extends down-
ward until it reaches the ground where it roots, thus
forming new trees and almost impenetrable thickets.

60 A NATURE WOOING.

Mosquito Inlet is the northernmost point at which the
mangrove flourishes.

Oyster beds are very common in this portion of
the river; their product being gathered and sold at
points higher up. At last we arrived —

' ' At the inlet bar where the yellow sands

Gleam bare when the tide is low,
And the crested line of the tumbling brine
Flings the froth like driven snow."

The Atlantic is here much wilder than at Ormond,
the breakers extending farther out, and the beach,
or distance between high and low tides, twice as wide.
Sea shells were much more abundant, but were, for
the most part, species of Area and other common
forms.

The most prominent objects along the beach were
several pairs of king, or horse-shoe, crabs, Limulus
polyphemus L. Most interesting to naturalists are
they on account of being the sole living representa-
tives of a great group of crustaceans which, beginning
in the Lower Silurian, culminated in the Upper Silur-
ian, and practically died out at the close of the Coal
period. The Eurypterids of the water-lime forma-
tion were the giants of this group, while the triloj
bites of the different ages were its most common rep-
resentatives.

The female of the largest pair of king crabs on the
beach measured twenty-three inches in length by ten

KING CRABS.

inches in breadth. The male was little more than
half as large. They have two pairs of compound
eyes, a horse-shoe shaped cephalo-thorax, composed
of six segments, and an abdo-
men of nine segments, the last
of which forms a long spine, or
bayonet-like tail. Six pairs of
appendages are attached to the
cephalo-thorax, the hand and
opposing thumb of the first
pair being modified in the male,
to serve as clasping organs. It
is said that along the Florida
coast the eggs are laid in May,
being deposited by the mother
in the sand between the limits
of high and low tide. They
hatch in six weeks, the young
being but one-quarter of an inch
in length. At the end of a year
they are but one inch long, so that a specimen the
size of the one I measured must have been a hoary
patriarch.

The king crabs burrow in the sand, and are said to
live mainly on sea worms, though the decaying bodies
of fishes and other aquatic animals probably furnish
them much food. They swim but clumsily, crawling,
for the most part, slowly along the bottom. They are
sometimes called "sauce-pans," on account of the
shape of the shield of the cephalo-thorax, which is

Fig. 16— Horse-shoe
Crab.

(Oreatly reduced.)

62 A NATURE WOOING.

often used to bail out boats. Hogs and poultry relish
them much as food and many are speared for that
purpose.

One which I turned over on its back succeeded in
righting itself after about a quarter of an hour's ef-
fort. It did this by bending back the front portion
of the shield as far as possible ; then turning one edge
against the sand and using the tail as a lever, it
finally, after many efforts, went over with a flop.
This is contrary to the statement of that eminent nat-
uralist, Thomas Say, who wrote of them as follows:
"When cast ashore by the waves, if they fall on the
back, they can not recover their proper position.
Many people feed their hogs upon them, and it is said
that some hogs that roam at large in the districts
where they abound, become acquainted with the fact
of their inability to turn themselves when placed on
the back, and when there happens to be a scarcity,
with a provident sagacity, they turn as many as they
can eat, or as are within their view, before they pro-
ceed to satisfy their hunger. This fact with respect
to one hog was related to me on good authority."*

Several examples of the brown pelican, Pelccanus
fuscus Linn., were noted flying along the shore and
wading in the shallow pools. They appear to be a
dusky gray rather than a brown in color, and are
smaller than the white pelican, P. erytlirorlujnclios
Gmel., which ranges north as far as the Great Lakes.

* Jourp. Phil. Acad. Nat. Sciences, 1, 1818, p. 435.

FIDDLER CRABS t)3

A fish hawk was seen to catch a large fish, and, after
rising 50 feet in air, utter two squealing notes and
drop it back into the sea. I looked around, expecting
to see a bald eagle, and hear the rush of its wings,
but nothing was in sight. Possibly the fish saved its
life by being too great a burden for the bird to carry.
Those curious little crustaceans, the fiddler -crabs,
Uca pugilator Bosc., are very abundant near the in-
let, as they are also along the river banks at Ormond.
They are easily recognized by the extraordinary de-
velopment of one of the claws or chelae of the males.
This large claw is used in fighting, which accounts for

Fig. 17-Fiddler Crab.

its size and strength. In the same way a man's right
arm is larger than the left on account of its more ac-
tive use. The females have little cause for fighting,
and both claws are, therefore, small. The large arm

64 A NATURE WOOING.

of the male fiddler may be either on the right or left
side. In its movements on land, which are sidewise,
very rapid and ludicrous, it carries the enlarged hand
above the ground, but on the slightest alarm, stops
and raises it, extending the fingers in a threatening
manner. This arm is also used to beckon or challenge
other males of their kind to a fight, hence they are
sometimes called acalling crabs." They burrow just
above high water mark along the banks of the river
and brackish marshes, honeycombing the ground with
innumerable openings of such a size that when they
retreat therein the great claw serves as a clog or
stopper for the entrance. These fiddler crabs are
much used as bait for fish, and myriads of them
doubtless fall a prey to crows, herons, gulls and other
shore visiting birds.

That fish-like mammal, the harbor porpoise, or
puffing pig, Phoccena communis Lesson, is common
along the East Florida coast, and ascends the Halifax
River as far as Daytona. A number were seen to-
day, both in the surf of the ocean and in the river,
the former in herds or shoals, wallowing and sport-
ing, and ever and anon turning and exposing their
paler under surfaces. They reach a length of five and
a half feet, and are said to feed almost wholly upon
fish. From their blubber a fine oil is made, and their
skins are utilized for leather, but the flesh is impreg-
nated with the oily taste and strong odor character-
istic of all fish-eating animals.

EARL Y SPRING DA YS. 65

March 15, 1899. — I sit at the base of a yellow, or
short-leaved, pine, Pinus mitis Michx., my head
against its fragrant trunk which rises, far out-topping
the -grove of cabbage palmettos in the midst of which
it stands. My muscles are tired and my brain aweary,
the results of yesterday's trip, which was too much
for me in my present weakened condition.

As I came out of the woods this morning and
struck the railway, I thought of it as that bond which
makes the whole world kin. From ocean to ocean it
stretches away; from lake to gulf its rails and sleep-
ers lie. Over its bed come daily tidings from the far
north, where yet the ice king holds his thrall and
rules over all with bonds of frozen moisture. Here,
balmy the breeze that kisses my brow, blowing as it
does from the Gulf Stream, 120 miles to the south-
east. In a letter received this morn a friend has
used the word "luxuriate." That is what I am try-
ing to do. Soothing the sunshine ! Let it fall around
me and fill my body and soul with new energy. Let
it rejuvenate me.

The sight of a tadpole in a pool of dark water be-
side the railway had a thrilling effect upon me as I
trudged hither. It awakened the cells of memory
and caused me to think thoughts and dream dreams
of other spring days in the calendar of my life ; of
other days when the frogs sang for the first time,
when the first chewinks and fox sparrows darted be-
fore me from my pathway — when every bud felt the

66 A NATURE WOOING.

influence of such a breeze as that now fanning my
cheek — when sap ran riot in the veins of plants and
insects' wings began their humming.

The colored section hands have cut down the this-
tle which, two days ago, blossomed for me. Me-
thinks no one but I saw the beauty of its bloom — I
and the insects which it attracted unto itself.

Along the margin of the marsh before me grows,
in these pine and palmetto woods, a shrubby buck-
eye, JEsculus pavia L., now putting forth its hand-
some oblong panicles of rose red flowers. Insects by
scores are visitors thereto, but, for the most part, they
are the common species of butterflies.

A ^are-footed, freckle-faced white boy, a dozen
years of age or thereabouts, from whom I purchased
some chamseleons a few days ago, meets me on the
way hither and greets me as an old friend. I had
asked him to capture some snakes for me, and he
tells me that he has one coral snake, but adds that
"snake hunting is hard work." He expects a quarter
of a dollar for the one he has, and I tell him to bring
it down to the village in a few days.

I pull the bark from about the trunk of a dead
pine, five feet in diameter, for as high as I can reach.
A careful inspection of both bark and trunk yields
but three species of beetles, and one of these, a
StapJiylinid, I fail to capture. One of the others is
Morio monilicorms Lat., a slender, dark, shining-
brown carabid, two-thirds of an inch in length; the

PAPAWS AND BUTTERFLIES. 67

other, a male of the purblind click beetle, Alaus
myops Fabr. A dead hardwood tree of similar size
in Indiana would have yielded a half-dozen or more
species, even in March.

A bevy of quails is flushed. With unerring sight
they wing their way among the thickly growing pal-
mettos and pines, striking none, but dodging now to
the right, now to the left, in swift, unbroken flight.

Several specimens of a form of the zebra butter-
fly, Papilio ajax L., are seen, but they fly wild and es-
cape the net. The papaw, Asimina triloba Dunal,

Fig. 18— Red Admiral.

(The under side of wing in shown on the right.)

upon which the larvae of this butterfly feed in the
north, is said not to grow in this vicinity. It is prob-
able, however, that the closely allied southern forms,
A. grandi flora and A. pygmcea Dunal, occur near
here, though, as yet, I have seen no sign of them.
The presence of the butterfly denotes that they are
here. A pair of red admirals, Pymmeis atalanta L.,

68 A NATURE WOOING.

are before me, flitting up and down and over and over
in serial courtship.

A large pileated woodpecker moves in swift, gal-
loping flight from the side of a dead hickory, where
he has been prodding for large red ants, to the top of
a lofty pine. There he" pauses, glances askance at
me, the intruder on his domain, then utters his shrill,
resounding call, which echoes far and wide through-
out the forest. An answering call is soon returned
from the northward, upon hearing which he wings his
way in the direction from whence it came.

March 16, 1899. — It pays to take little trips to one
side of the beaten pathway. This morning I went
into the brambles and worked for fifteen minutes
about some old decaying pine logs. The result was a
"mule killer/' or vinegerone, two true scorpions and
a centipede — all "sure death" to the natives of this
region.

The vinegerone, or whip scorpion, Thelyphonus gi-
ganteus Lucas, possesses eight legs and belongs to the
group Pedipalpi, of the order Arachnida. It is, there-
fore, allied to the spiders, mites and scorpions, more
especially to the latter. It is a hideous, dark brown,
crab-like creature, two and a half inches in length,
with a long and very slender, many-jointed telson,
like the lash of a whip, attached to the end of the ab-
domen. The palpi are much enlarged, bear several
coarse teeth, and end in more or less perfectly formed
pincers. The front pair of legs are much longer and

THE WHIP SCORPION.

69

more slender than the others. Though greatly feared

by most persons, it is not poisonous. The forceps

with which I captured

the specimen at hand

are strongly impreg-

nated with the odor of

acetic acid, one of the

constituents of vinegar.

This comes from a fluid

which the animal, when

alarmed, excretes as a

means of defense, hence

the common names,

vinaigrier and vinege-

rone. In habits the

whip scorpion is noc-

turnal, hiding by day

beneath rubbish and

feeding at night upon

insects and other of the

lower forms of .animal

life. It occurs only in

tropical and Semi-trOpi-

cal regions — another

specimen in my collection having been taken in

southwestern Texas.

The true scorpions which I found about Ormond
are all of small size and of one species, Centrums
Jientzi Banks. They belong to the Scorpionida, a
group coordinate with the Pedipalpi above noticed,

Fig. M-WMP Scorpion.

(About three-fourtHs natural ilze.)

A NATURE WOOING.

and characterized by possessing a long, slender post-
abdomen, which can be curled up over the back and
which is armed at the end with a sharp sting or telson,
hooked like a claw. • This is con-
nected with a venom gland, so
that its puncture inflicts a wound
which is very painful. In C.
hentzi the sting has a small tu-
bercle or supplementary spine
beneath it; the body is striped
with black and yellow; the cau-
dal portion being brown, and the
legs yellow barred with brown.
The largest one of a number
taken measured but one and a
half inches in total length. For
the most part, they were found
beneath bark or between piles of logs. They also are
nocturnal and carnivorous in habit; seizing their
prey, which consists mainly of spiders and insects,
with the chelae, and then stinging it. The young are
said to be born alive and are carried about by the
mother for some time, attaching themselves to her
body by means of their slender pincers.

In a small clearing in the underbrush I also took
to-day two females of a handsome, green, cone-headed
grasshopper, Conocephalus nietoi Sauss. The fastig-
ium, or projecting cone of the head, is short, stout.

Fig. 20— A True
Scorpion.

A DARKEY'S OPINION. 71

rounded at the tip and margined in front with black.
The ovipositor is the same length as the body, one
and one-quarter inches, while the tegmina, or outer
wings, are two inches. They were on clumps of green
grass, into which they tried to escape by burrowing.
A third specimen and a brown form of the same
species were taken on later dates.

In the afternoon I visited the shell mound and dug
for a while in its debris, taking out several pieces of
broken pottery and a bone awl. I have interested a
darkey, who is hauling the shells to town for side-
walks, and he to-day presented me with a small per-
forated bone ornament, which he had found while
loading his cart. He is a typical "cracker negro,"
jolly and talkative on all occasions. He said to-day
that that which surprised him was the way in which
a northern man worked. "A southern gemmen, after
getting fifteen or twenty thousand dollahs, will set
down and do nuffiV but enjoy hisself fo' de rest o'
his days, but the northern gemmen, he jes' keeps a
wukin' on, same as evah, even if he is wuf a hundred
thousand dollahs."

March 11, 1899. — Once more I rest my head
against the bole of the pine tree in the palmetto
woods. Once more the breeze from the Gulf Stream
fans my brow, but it is cooler than when I was here
before. For fifteen years I have been a naturalist.
They have been years full of work, of hopes, of am-
bitions. Happiest those days when I have been alone

72 A NATURE WOOING.

in woods and fields, when I wa's learning for the
first time lessons from nature — lessons purer, nobler
and better than I ever expect to learn from the books
of man — lessons showing me the close relationship
existing among all animate and inanimate things-
teaching me that this world, this universe of ours, is
not made up of single, isolated objects and forces,
but that each object, each force is but a necessary
part of one grand and perfect whole. At the end of
fifteen years I am still a tyro — still learning daily
new facts from the book of nature, still, and ever ex-
pect to be, a tramp naturalist. I still delight to chase
the winged butterfly o'er field and pasture ; draw the
seine through ripple and shallow for silvery minnow
and rainbow darter — climb hill and wade pond for
partridge berry or water lily, or wander all day
through thicket and forest in search of hermit thrush
and hooded warbler.

I am not a specialist in any branch of natural his-
tory, nor do I ever expect to be one. I do not desire
to spend my life in pondering over the synonymy,
and studying the minute structure of the organs of
some particular group of animal or plant life. The
world at large will never know me as an eminent
ichthyologist or botanist, ornithologist or entomolo-
gist, geologist or conchologist, but I wish to know
myself as being, in a small way, an ichtho-bota-orni-
geo-concho-entom-etc.-gist, and so be able to see more
and more clearly as time goes on the mutual relations

AT ORMOND BY THE SEA. 73

and interdependence of the various classes of nature's
objects. Such a course will never bring me the re-
nown that I might have achieved had I become a
specialist ; but what is renown as compared with pres-
ent happiness and pleasure ? And then, as Emerson,
in his Essay on Nature, says: "In the woods a man
caste off his years as the snake his slough, and at what
period soever of life is always a child. In the woods
is perpetual youth." I do not desire to grow old too
soon, and so will seek in the way that I have chosen
that fountain of youth which Ponce de Leon sought
for in vain on the coast where I am now sitting.

But little has, as yet, this morning been added to
my store. A small, dark brown butterfly, Nison-
iades ncevius Lint., expanding an inch and a half
and with a rather large, irregular umber spot on the
fore wings in front of four very small sub-apical
whitish spots, was taken. It has heretofore been
known only from the region of the Indian River, one
hundred and forty miles to the south. A small blue
Thecla and a Pamphila were also seen, but escaped
the net.

I pull the bark from the bole of a fallen yellow
pine. A "red-headed" lizard, Eumeces fasciatus L.,
about ten inches in length, scurries away and runs
into a crevice of the upturned root partially buried in
the sand. I go after him with a trowel. While I am,
at work a mature roach, Ischnoptera unicolor Scudd.,
starts "to fly away. I knock it down with the trowel,

74 A NATURE WOOING.

and another March Orthopteran is added to my Flor-
ida list. The lizard is finally unearthed. The last jab
of the trowel unluckily "details" him, but the tail
and body, both squirming, are con-
signed to the bottle of alcohol. A
few minutes later a young example
of the same lizard, six inches in
length, and possessing a bright
blue tail, is taken. This lizard
is the only one of our North Amer-
Fig.2i. ican species which has the distinc-

tion of bei "red-headed" when

(Male.) c

old, and "blue-tailed" when young.
The variations between these two forms are many
and have been the cause of much confusion in the
descriptions of the animal. Even Holbrook, the
father of American Herpetology, described and fig-
ured the two forms as different, calling the old red-
headed one Scincus quinquelineatus, and the younger
blue-tailed one, 8. fasciatus.

In a marl outcrop in a cut of the railway at the
edge of a hammock a mile northwest of Ormond, the
so-called "marl" is found to be a mass of finely com-
minuted shells, mingled with larger pieces of oyster,
clam, conch, and other recent shells, now common
along the beach. The thickness of this shell deposit
could not be determined. Over it is a foot (eight to
fourteen inches) of a reddish, sandy loam. This is

ORIGIN OF HAMMOCKS. 75

overlain by three inches of whitish sand, above which
one to three inches of vegetable humus forms the sur-
face. But a few thousand years have elapsed since
this broken mass of shells was a part of the ocean's
bed. Over it the reddish sand, already noted as at
present occupying much of the space between the lim-
its of high and low tide, was deposited by the water.
The white sand was then blown over this by the wind,
just as it is now being spread by that agency over the
red along the sea beach. The saw palmetto and allied
vegetation which first secured a foothold in the sand,
died down and formed the beginning of the vegetable
mold, which has gradually increased in thickness by
the decay of many hundreds of generations of more
luxuriant plants. In this way this hammock, and all
others of a similar nature in East Florida, owe their
origin to the agencies of the ocean, the wind and de-
caying vegetation.

March 18, 1899,. — Beneath the bark of a fallen
and decaying pine I found
to-day two examples of that
curious little toothless frog,
Engystoma carolinense Hoi-
brook. When the loose bark
was pulled away they re-
mained squatted close to the
brown wood, which they re-
sembled so closely that had it not been for the pro-
tuberances which they formed, I might have passed

76 A NATURE WOOING.

them by unnoticed. The body of this frog is short
and oval, the total length not exceeding an inch. The
head is small and triangular ; the snout pointed, and
the jaws toothless. Above, the body is dark, grayish
brown, while below it is lighter, but thickly mottled
with blackish specks.

Of the habits of this frog but little seems to be re-
corded. Holbrook says : "It passes most of its days
in concealment near old fences or under the bark of
fallen trees, emerging only toward evening and after
heavy rains. It makes a feeble chirp at night, and at
times when captured ; and being but a clumsy swim-
mer, if thrown into the water it repeats this chirp fre-
quently in its endeavors to escape."* On the con-
trary, Cope, in his "Batrachia of North America,"
says that "the cry is loud for the size of the animal."
He reports it as very common in ditches along the
streets of Houston and San Antonio, Texas, in Sep-
tember, and adds : "They are extremely shy and be-
come silent on the approach of human footsteps. As
only the tip of their nose projects above the water
level, they disappear beneath it without leaving a rip-
ple."f I afterward took it on two different occasions
near Ormond, but beneath bark or rubbish some dis-
tance from water. It is the sole representative of its
family in the United States, having been taken as far
north as New Madrid, Missouri. Eighteen genera

* North American Herpetology, 1, 1836, p. 84.
tLoc.cit., 1889, 386.

THE SIX- LINED LIZARD. 77

and fifty-three species have been described from other
countries, chiefly from the tropics.

I also took to-day a male of the six-lined lizard,
Cnemidophorus sex-lineaius L. I had seen them on
several previous occasions, but their movements were
so rapid that I had been unable to capture one. Its
habits here are the same as among the sand dunes at
the foot of Lake Michigan, where it occurs plenti-
fully. Here, as there, they are always seen in sandy
localities, scampering swiftly from one clump of
bunch grass to another ; so swiftly, in fact, that a
great deal of maneuvering is necessary to capture one
with a butterfly net. The specimen taken to-day is
dusky brown in color, with three yellow streaks on
each side, the interspaces being jet black. The throat
is silvery white, and the abdomen a deep, shining
blue. I have never seen it climb trees, as does the
common blue-tailed lizard, Eumeces fasciatus L.,
though Holbrook states that "it will take to trees
when pursued." He also adds that "it feeds on in-
sects and generally seeks its food toward the close of
the day, when it may be seen in corn fields far from
its usual retreats ; and, not infrequently, I have met
male and female in company."*

This afternoon, while excavating in the shell
mound, a large cabbage palmetto, which had been un-
dermined by the negroes who are carting away shells,
fell into the excavation and missed me about ten feet.

* Loc. cit., p. (55.

78 A NATURE WOOING.

March 19, 1899. — Earning in the forenoon. Along
the river bank, in front of the house where I room,
are several bunches of hay, which is composed of a
mixture of stems of weeds and coarse bunch grass.
It has lain there for several months. I turned it over
between showers, and found several specimens of the
field cricket, Gryllus pennsylvanicm Burm., and a
male of a long-winged roach, Ischnoptem bolliana
Sauss., neither of which I have seen here before.
From beneath some near-by rubbish, along the sides
of a rill which carries the waste of a flowing well
to the river, I also secured several examples of that
flat, discoidal snail, Polygyra septemvolva Say. The
whorls are seven in number, compressed, depressed,
and marked with conspicuous lines and grooves
above. In color it is russet-horn, and the greatest
diameter is three-fifths of an inch. Its range is con-
fined to the Atlantic coast of Georgia and Florida.
I afterwards took it beneath decaying palmetto logs
and rubbish in a number of places near Ormond.

Another snail, of which I to-day secured a single
specimen, beneath the rubbish by the rill, is Polygyra
pustula Fer., a reddish, horn-colored and hirsute
species, whose maximum breadth is but one-fifth of
an inch. It is chiefly characterized by having a deep
groove within the umbilicus, and ranges from
Georgia to Texas.

In the afternoon, though the wind was blowing
strongly, I once again visited the beach. The most

A WRECKED SCHOONER. 79

prominent object along the shore was the hull of a
deserted ship about a mile below Ormond, which was
wrecked on December 5, 1896. It being low tide, I
easily reached it and climbed to its deck. It had been
a three-masted schooner, about one hundred and
twenty feet in length. One mast had been sawed off,
the other two snapped by the storm which drove the
vessel stem first upon this coast. Two of her crew
were swept overboard and drowned before she struck,
and a landsman was also drowned while striving to
rescue the remainder of the crew, who were finally
saved. On the side of her prow is the name — Nathan
F. Cobb, of Rockland, Maine. Her hull lies deep in
the sands. At high tide the ocean, proud of his
power, breaks over her. Vultures and fish hawks at
times rest upon the stubs of her broken masts.
Curiosity-seekers like myself by hundreds come and
go. There she will probably lie for years to come,
the only wreck of any importance along this coast
for 50 miles.

March 20, 1899. — The night has been cool, but the
sun rises bright and glorious from the bed of the
ocean. There is but here and there a dimple on the
surface of the river. Its waters are flowing placidly
onward to the sea. The waters of a man's life are his
days. Like those of a river, a lake or the sea, they
are at one time calm, placid and slow moving. At an-
other, they are tossed into foam, into high waves, and

80 A NATURE WOOING.

are driven on by adverse winds in rapid, tumultuous
course.

The large glossy evergreen leaves of the magnolia,
M. grandiflora L., are the most handsome foliage of
the woods hereabouts. Large numbers of them have
recently been used in decorating the office and hall-
ways of the great hotel across the river.

One seeks the sunny places in the woods and fields
at noon to-day, as the mercury is only at 50° F.
About 75° is the most pleasant in this latitude.
Above that is depressing.

The dragonflies which occur here differ much in
habit from those in the north. There they are sel-
dom seen except about marshes and borders of
streams and ponds. Here they seem to seek the
higher, dryer, woodland paths. This morning I have
seen hundreds of the medium-sized, brown-winged
form, Tramea Carolina L., flitting hither and thither
in active flight. Many others of the same species are
resting 'on the twigs of oaks and other trees, their
bodies standing out at right angles to the support to
which they cling. This species occurs most abun-
dantly along the sea coast, but ranges inland as far
as the Great Lakes.

I to-day saw the first colony of the young of that
giant lubberly grasshopper Dictyophorus reticulatus
Thunb. There were about seventy of them on the
leaves and stems of a single weed in the old orange
orchard. I also secured a magnificent specimen of

AT ORMOND BY THE SEA. 81

£?

that great black and yellow butterfly, the tiger swal-
low-tail, Papilio turnus L. Many have been seen,
but the freshly moulted ones fly Ijigh, those next the

Fig. 23— Tiger Swallow-tail.

(Two-fifths natural lize.)

ground within reach of the net being almost always
worn and be-draggled. As yet the dimorphic form
glaucus has not been seen, though the books say it
is "southern in its range." But the books are not al-
ways right. Too often are they written by closet
naturalists, who depend upon others to gather their
specimens and first-hand knowledge.

March 21, 1899. — For two nights I have slept but
little. The old nervous feeling is upon me with full
force. This morning I fish for an hour from the
bridge, where many sea trout, Cynoscwn nebulosus
Cuv. & Vsil.j and sailors' choice, Lagodon rhoniboides
L., have recently been token. I, however, get "nary
a nibble."

6

82

A NATURE WOOING.

I afterwards spend some time searching beneath
the loose bark of old pine logs in the woods, north-
west of town, but find little other than what I have
taken. Beneath this bark is the favorite abiding
place of the blue-tailed skink, Eumeces fasciatus L.
Here, roaches, ants, and other lizard delicacies are
common. Here is protection from frost and from
birds of prey. At least a dozen were found beneath
this pine bark shelter during my morning's search.
Here, too, abides the pretty little ring-necked snake,
Diadophis punctatus L. A specimen taken this morn-

Fig. 24-Ring-necked Snake.

ing differs from those of the north in having the ring
about the neck salmon red, instead of creamy white.
It is but eight inches in length ; above, blue-black in
color ; below, bright orange, with two lateral rows of
blackish blotches, and a median row of similar spots
between the head and tail.

In the afternoon I take my way to a grassy slope
beyond a large, vacant house. Here I bask, like a

THE S UN— THE R VLER. 83

lizard, for two hours or more, in the sun's light and
heat. Do I store up any energy ? I know not, but it
is pleasant to be able, on a March day, to stretch
myself upon this sloping grassy spot and feel the
warm rays beat upon my cheek.

I bow my head in reverence before thee, O Sun,
my master ! Thou art King and Lord of all ! From
thy face beams a radiant light which quickens into
new life all forms of organic beings. The sap in bud,
in herb, in tree, obedient to thy will, becomes more
liquid, mounts faster, reaches the farthermost cells,
and shortly builds new ones to receive thy precious
rays. The blood in animals becomes possessed with
new energy, and bounds impulsively through the
veins. Thou strengthenest the weak, thou curbest
the strong. Thou art the source of all energy, the
fountain of all life. Why, then, should not I, this
afternoon, receive new powers from thy effulgent
rays?

March 22, 1899. — The morning dawns clear and
warm. By ten o'clock the temperature is 82°, and
the blue of the sky intense and dazzling.

An old man cleaned the yard for Mrs. B. this morn-
ing, who came to Florida a few years ago with $2, 200,
his life savings. He invested $1,000 of it in three
acres of land near Orinoiid, one of which was already
set out to orange trees. In clearing and planting the
other two acres he spent $500 more. The second
year after, the frost killed all his trees. He is thus

84 A NATURE WOOING.

left with only $700, and works at odd jobs for a liv-
ing. Moral, beware of orange groves in north Flor-
ida. The climate of this part of the State is delight-
ful, but it is not coupled with an abundance of good
soil. It is a fine place to live or to winter if a person
has money which he has made somewhere else. Most
of those who make a living here get it by catering in
some manner to the wants of invalids or tourists from
the north, not by raising fruit, crops, or by manufac-
turing.

In the old orange orchard I found the male of the
parti-colored sand locust, Scirtettica picta Scudd.,
more abundant than at any time before. He has the
most prolonged stridulation of any locust known to
me. He zig-zags in his flight almost at right angles,
sometimes staying in the air for half a minute, flying
all about an acre or more, and finally alighting on
the sand within a yard of where he arose. All the
time he is up he sounds his musical organ with every
stroke of his wings, making a loud z-rr-zrr-zrr, like
the subdued note of the harvest fly, Cicada pruinosa
L., or the prolonged and angry buzz of a big bumble
bee. This locust has been recorded only from
Georgia and Florida, though it will doubtless be
found farther north in sandy fields close to the coast.

A few days ago a darkey brought to the house
while I was away a mole cricket, Gryllotalpa borealis
Burm. This morning I met him for the first time
since, and told him what it was and something of its

THE SPREADING VIPER.

85

habits. He said he has seen hundreds of them when
plowing along the edges of the hammocks. This dar-
key and most of his race hereabouts often greet me,
whatever the time of day, with the
alliterative phrase, "Mawnin', mis-
ter.'7

In the afternoon I went with a
party to the shell mound. On the
way we happened upon a small
spreading viper, Heterodon platy-
rhinus Lat, in the sandy roadway.
It was very brightly colored and
about fourteen inches in length. On
first seeing us it hissed and spread
itself out very flat, but soon at-
tempted to escape. When headed
off, it turned over on its back and
went through some remarkable
squirming vibrations, twisting and writhing into
every conceivable form, as though suffering from a
most severe case of snake epilepsy. Finally, with
mouth wide open, it became perfectly quiet, feigning
death in every particular except when turned right
side up, when it would immediately squirm over
again. We left it apparently lifeless, but on return-
ing, a half hour later, it was gone. This curious
habit of feigning death when teased is seemingly pe-
culiar to the spreading viper, and is practiced by both
young and old.* This snake is said to be common

*See Jour. Cincin. Soc. Nat. Hist., 1891, p. 33.

r. 25— Mole
Cricket.

(Natural rize.)

86 A NATURE WOOING.

about Ormond, though the one above mentioned was
the only one I saw. It is thought by most persons
that it is very poisonous and can even spit venom.
It is, however, one of the most harmless of snakes,
possessing no sign of a poison fang.

March 23, 1899. — The forenoon is hot and sultry.
I overturned once more the hay on the river bank,
and was rewarded with a specimen of a roach, Pyc-
noscelus surinamensis L., which I have not before
found. It is of medium size, three-quarters of an inch
in length by two-fifths of an inch in breadth. The
wings are light smoky brown, slightly longer than
the abdomen, while the head and pronotum are dark
shining brown, the latter narrowly margined in front
with yellow. It is said to be abundant in the tropics
of both hemispheres ; and in the United States occurs
in the Gulf and South Atlantic states.

Among plants now in blossom hereabouts, I notice
an old northern friend, the Carolina cranesbill, Ger-
anium carolinianum L. It is common in waste places
along the roadways and in old fields, as is also that
handsome, hairy, purple phlox, Phlox amcena L.
The latter was noticed on March 5th, and is said to
bloom all winter when the season is favorable. I
first became acquainted with it a dozen years ago in
Monroe County, Indiana, where it reaches its north-
ern limit.

The big green dragonfly, with spotted abdomen,
^Eschna ingens Ramb., is out to-day by thousands.

JIGGERS OR "RED-BUQS:

87

Its flight is so swift that one can scarcely follow it
with the eye. The only way I can catch them is by
striking wildly at them with the net as they come
along. It is like striking at a base ball pitched with
exceeding swiftness. I can always tell when I have
made a capture by the thud with which it hits the
bottom of the net.

The "red-bug" has shown its colors, or, rather, its
bites. My ankles are sore with the eruptions due to
their burrowing. From what I can see of them they
are only the northern jigger, Leptus irritans Riley.

This is a minute reddish insect, belonging to the
group of mites. In the larval form, the one in which

Fig. 26— Jiggers. (Two species.)

Leptvt irritans on the right.
(After Riley.)

it occurs as a pest, it has six legs instead of eight,
and a pair of very large maxillae, or arms. Dr. Riley
has given a popular account of this pest, as follows :
"Woe betide the person who, after bathing in some

88 A NATURE WOOING.

stream, is lured to a green dressing spot of weeds or
grass ! He may, for the time, consider himself fortu-
nate in getting rid of mud and dirt, but he will after-
wards find to his sorrow that he exchanged them for
something far more tenacious in these microscopic
harvest mites. If he has obtained a good supply of
them, he will in a few hours begin to suffer from se-
vere itching, and for the next two or three days will
be likely to scratch until his limbs are sore.

"With the strong mandibles and the elbowed max-
illae, which act like arms, this mite is able to bury it-
self completely in the flesh, thereby causing a red
swelling, with a pale pustulous center, containing
watery matter. If, in scratching, he is fortunate
enough to remove the mite before it enters, the part
soon heals. But otherwise the irritation lasts for two,
three, or four days, the pustulous center reappearing
as often as it is broken.

"The animal itself, on account of its minute size,
is seldom seen, and the uninitiated, when first
troubled with it, are often alarmed at the symptoms,
and at a loss to account for them. Fortunately these
little plagues never attach themselves to persons in
such immense numbers as do sometimes young or so-
called 'seed' ticks; but I have known cases where,
from the irritation and consequent scratching, the
flesh had the appearance of being covered with
ulcers ; and in some localities, where these pests most
abound, sulphur is often sprinkled during 'jigger'

REMEDIES FOR JIGGER BITES. 89

season in the boots or shoes as a protection. Sulphur
ointment is also a good remedy against the effects of
these mites, though when that can not be obtained,
saleratus water and salt water will partially allay the
irritation.

"Their normal food, apparently, consists of the
juices of plants, and the love of blood proves ruinous
to those individuals who get a chance to indulge it.
For, unlike the true jigger, the female of which de-
posits eggs in the wound she makes, these harvest
mites have no object of the kind, and when not killed
by the hands of those they torment, they soon die vic-
tims to their sanguinary appetite."*

An excellent remedy for the bite of these "red-
bugs" is the bathing of the affected parts in a very di-
lute solution of .carbolic acid — one part of acid to
fifty parts of water. Diluted alcohol can also be used
to advantage.

In making a side excursion this morning, I got into
a tangled mass of young pines, saw palmettos and
scrubby undergrowth, which was the worst I ever en-
countered. 'Twas a veritable semi-tropical jungle.
Long grape vines, smilax of various kinds and other
thorn-bearing upright shrubs and twining vines
everywhere impeded my progress. For half an hour
I tried to force my way out before I was successful.
I could not see twenty feet ahead for most of the

•-Amer. Naturalist, VII, 1873, p. 18.

90

A NATURE WOOING.

time. At last I came out, perspiring and well-nigh
exhausted, into an old Spanish roadway.

Those little wood-brown butterflies, the Neonym-
phas, are very common to-day. N. sosybius Fab. has
already been mentioned. N. eurytus Fab., somewhat
larger, and with two eye spots circled with yellow,

on both the upper and
lower surfaces of each
wing, is more com-
mon. N. gemma Hub.
also occurs, but spar-
ingly. The habits of
all are the same. They
are frail creatures of
the earth — ever-mov-
ing— ever-flitting close
to the ground in search of something, I know not
what. Their brown wings shield them from the
sight of bird and other enemy. Along woodland
paths, in sunny lanes, for two weeks and more they
have been the prevailing form of insect life. Rest,
they seem to know not. Perchance for an instant one
will pause with folded wing, and bask in the sun-
shine on some dry leaf; then up and away it goes,
ever seeking, seeking, seeking o'er the face of Mother
Earth. They are not gifted with living motion.
They are but the shadows of dead leaves, driven on-
ward before the breeze. So thinks, at times, the nat-
uralist, as he, too, basks in the sunlight and sees their
flitting forms go by.

Fig. 27— Wood Nymph Butterfly.

tfeonympha eurytu* Fab.

THE PRAIRIE WARBLER. 91

Just after noon there was a gentle rain, with occa-
sional thunder, for an hour and a half. Then a calm.
~Not a ripple upon the surface of the water, and the
air cooler by ten degrees. All was fresh, peaceful
and inviting in the fields. A pleasing woodsy odor
mingled with that of the pines. The song of a car-
dinal, the cheery note of a wren, and the lisping call
of two or three warblers alone broke the silence.

I watch for a time a warbler in a nearby scrub oak,
flitting from branch to branch, and peering furtively

Fig. 28— Prairie Warbler.

on every side. Its back is olive, with several chestnut
bars in the center. The under parts and throat are
bright yellow. Black bars border the sides of head
and throat. Is it the prairie warbler, Dendroica dis-
color Yiellot, northward bound ? If so, I would fain
send by him a message to the loved ones at home.

March 21+, 1899. — To-day I accompanied a party of
excursionists on a gasoline launch up the Tomoka, or,

92

A NATURE WOOING.

in the vernacular of the darkey, the "Mokey." We
went as far as Misener's Landing, where the hotel
people have erected a rude log cabin for the shelter
and accommodation of such of their guests as choose
to make the trip.

We first ascended the Halifax in the face of a
strong, north head wind, for six miles, when we ?ame
to the broad mouth of the Tomoka, which enters
from the west. On the way up the Halifax we saw
a number of cormorants, Phalacrocorax dilophus
Swainson, perched on the poles or posts erected along
the stream as channel guides for the pilot. They

would sit motion-
less, with necks far
outstretched until
the boat was almost
.opposite, then move
onward close to the
water, in long, lum-
bering flight, to a
distant perch. Sev-
eral flocks of "blue-
bills," or scaup

ducks, Aythya marila L., were also flushed^ their
white sides and backs as they flew disclosing their
identity.

The mouth of the Tomoka is a third of a mile in
width and very shallow, but after fairly entering the
stream it narrows to one hundred and fifty yards or

Fig. 29— Scaup Duck.

UP THE TOMOKA. 93

less, and the water becomes very dark, almost black,
and deep. Rounding a bend we saw lying on the
bank our first live alligator on his native heath. He
was ten feet or more in length, and an ugly looking
varmint from any point of view. Several kodak
snap-shots were obtained of him as the boat went by
a half-dozen rods from where he lay blinking in the
sun. We had not fairly gotten past when, with a
clumsy plunge, he went headlong into the river and
disappeared beneath^ its turbid waters. A little
farther on the eyes and tip of nose of another "gator"
were seen close to the shore and just above the level
of the water. They sunk slowly and silently as we
drew near. But two others were noted during the
day, the air being too cool to suit their sunning pro-
clivities.

A number of "cooters," or large greenish turtles,
Pseudemys concinna LeConte, were observed, always
solitary, resting on half submerged logs in secluded
nooks along the shore.

The Tomoka makes many crooks and turns, often
abriipt. Like most other streams, one bank is usually
the lower, being the border of a flat marshy tract cov-
ered with reeds and coarse grass; and with willows,
cypress and cabbage palmettos close to the water's
edge. The other bank is six to ten feet higher, the
surface sandy, and covered with pine and saw palmet-
tos in abundance.

94 A NATURE WOOING.

Numerous ospreys or fish, hawks, Pandion Jialicetus
L., were seen both on the going and returning trips.
One of them had a large fish in its talons, so held that
the head of the fish was toward the head of the bird,
so as to retard the latter as little as possible in its
flight. It flew before us for a mile or more, alighting
at intervals of a few hundred yards on some dead

Fig. 30— Osprey or Fish Hawk.

limb of cypress or oak; then, on our near approach,
up and away, always clinging tightly to its prey.

Among the most striking objects along the river
are .the nests of these ospreys — great circular masses
of mosses and twigs — placed far out on the project-
ing limb of some dead snag, safe from the clutches of
any egg-collecting urchin, or other animal with
oological propensities. The sticks of the nest alone
form a large mass, serving as a foundation ; but when
the nest is finished are so completely covered with the

AN OSPEEY'S NEST. 95

gray Spanish moss as to be almost out of sight. It is
said that the birds collect the materials of which their
nests are made from distant places, when they might
easily secure them within a few rods of the tree on
which they are placed. One of the nests was as large
as a bushel basket, and is said to have been occupied
each season for fifteen years, or since the Tomoka
was first visited by the tourists, and for how much
longer man knoweth not. It is lined each spring with
new moss, and otherwise put in repair. To-day the
head of the sitting bird was just visible above its rim.
The season of incubating was evidently in its height
as one of the birds was either sitting on each nest
noted, or was standing on its edge, while the other
was usually perched on a nearby tree.

Going up the stream until fallen trees formed a
barrier against further progress we turned the bow
towards home and retraced our way to Misener's
Landing and the cabin. Here a high piece of sandy
ground, free from underbrush — a pine-barren, in fact
— stretches back from the river, far as eye can reach.
It is covered with a tall species of wire grass, Aristida
stricta Michx., now brown and sere ; while numerous
examples of the long-leaved pine, Pinus palustris
Mill., are scattered over its expanse. It was the first
open pine woods I had had opportunity to visit, and
while the others of the party amused themselves about
the cabin, I rambled afar, seeking what I might find,
in this southern woodland pasture.

96

A NATURE WOOING.

It seems that at this season the name of "barren"
applies as well to the animal as to the vegetable forms
of life, for the former were few and far between.
Four species of beetles taken from beneath chunks
and fallen limbs alone rewarded me for the two hours'
search. The largest was Pasimachus marginatus
Fab., an oblong black carabid an
inch in length, of which two
specimens were taken. An-
other and rarer species was
Helluomorpha ferruginea Lee., a
uniform brown form which is
not recorded in any Florida list.
The others are Tenebrioides semi-
cylindrica Horn, a cylindrical,
elongate black species which is

/^ also rare, and Plianeus igneus
MacL., a "tumble buar" closely

Fig. 31. ,,. , ,

jtofmaehuMryiuto.Fab. allied to our common northern

P. carnifex.

Returning to the cabin, I partook of a "fish chow-
der," of which one small bass formed the fishy flavor ;
since the finny tribe had refused to sacrifice them-
selves for our hungry stomachs. Nevertheless, other
viands were plentiful, and after an hour at the festal
board, we started homeward.

On the way down stream a great blue heron, Ardea
herodias L., seemingly of lighter hue than the same
species in the north, was flushed a number of times.
He would arise with a loud flapping of wings from

A GREAT BLUE HERON. 97

some cove or sheltered position where, for a minute
or two, he had been hidden from view, and, extending
his long legs straight out behind him to serve as a rud-
der in lieu of his short tail, he would flap his way
onward for one hundred and fifty yards or more,
then drop down behind a bunch of reeds. There he
would stand motionless, with outstretched neck,
watching and waiting for our approach, when again
he would be up and away. The small green heron,
Ardca virescens L., and the kingfisher, Ceryle alcyon
L., were also seen at intervals along our way. Just
before reaching the Halifax the boat, though draw-
ing but twenty-six inches, grounded in the shallow
water, and had to be worked off by shifting the posi-
tion of the passengers and then using a pole. If
necessary, we could have easily waded to the shore.

The Tomoka is a characteristic representative of
the smaller Floridian streams; with its deep, dark,
slowly flowing water; palmettos, pines and cypresses
festooned with hanging moss, leaning far out over its
depths ; shining mullet leaping at intervals above its
surface; alligators and turtles basking on its banks or
on half submerged logs ; and negroes humming with
peculiar nasal twang their plaintive melodies, while
rowing and fishing in its waters.

March 25, 1899. — Once more, O my pine tree, lift-
ing thy head so proudly above thy surroundings—
once more I come to thee, rest my head, weary with
pain, against thy friendly trunk and give way to rev-

98 A NATURE WOOING.

ery ! I would not give much for a man who can look
upon the first wild flowers of spring and not feel a
love, a boundless love, of Nature in his soul. For
to know God, the true God, the one universal and
all, one must know Nature in the true sense. But
few, if any, men have ever known her thus, for to do
so is to know the relation existing between matter
and force, between atom and molecule, between ele-
ment and compound, between cell and tissue, between
organ and system, between plant and animal, between
each one of nature's objects and all the rest. It is to
grasp, as it were, the universe in one grand compre-
hension— to stand on an eminence a thousand times
higher than any on earth and see all objects in one
grand vista before you ; and at the same time feel and
understand the workings of the great natural forces
about you. Then, and then only, can one see and
know his relation to all — f eel that he is a part of the
universal whole — a parcel of the universe — bound to
it and kin to all which it comprises. For the Universe
is God, and God is the Universe.

I pull the bark from a fallen pine, which lies half
buried in the meld, and find the following inhabitants
dwelling beneath its shelter : One rather large, blue-
tailed lizard ; two toothless frogs, Engystoma caro-
tin ense Holb. ; several specimens of a carabid beetle,
Anisodactylus terminatus Say; a number of beetle
larvae; several species of ants; a large cockroach,
Eurycotcb ingens Scudd. ; numerous young of another

MYRIAPODS.

99

roach ; a half dozen earwigs, Labia burgessi Scudd. ;
a colony of "white ants;" two centipedes, Scolopen-
dra morsitans L. ; two large millipedes, Spirobolus
spinigerus Wood, and several smaller myriapods,
members of the genus Lifhdbius. It was surely a
"happy family," living seemingly in peace and unity
beneath the bark of the old pine log.

The true myriapods are always to me a group of
more than passing interest ; since they are the typical
representatives of that great branch of
Arthropods, which comprises all insects
and crustaceans. Active are they, and
when the protective shelter of bark,
chunk or chip is raised from above
them, away they scamper, seeking an-
other hiding place beneath some leaf or
lump of mold. Handsome, too, are
some of them, especially the long, slen-
der Scolopendrid, with its clear bluish-
green body. Their food, in the main,
the juices of decaying vegetation, their
lives are spent in and about these old
logs in the midst of plenty. Perchance,
at times, a shrew, salamander or carniv-
orous beetle covets the protoplasm which
they have stored, and makes of them a meal; but,
otherwise, methinks, the moments pass quietly, un-
noted and unsung, until at last they yield back to
Mother Earth the dust which is her own.

Fig. 32.
A Myriapod.

100

A NATURE WOOING.

Today I take for the first time a specimen of that
little semi-tropical butterfly, the "tailed skipper," Eu-
damus proteus L. It expands about two inches; is
dark brown in color, with four whitish spots on the
fore wing, while the hind wings are without spots and
are produced into tails about half an inch in length.
It ranges as far north as New York City, and south-
westward at least to the lower part of Old Mexico,
where I have taken it in numbers.

The wood ticks, Dermacentor americanus L., are
becoming common. They are often called "dog-
ticks," since dogs are their most common host. The
females, when they attach themselves to the skin of
man or beast, and are allowed to remain, become

gorged with blood un-
til they are very much
swollen, and are some-
times a full half inch
in length. The males
are quite handsome, as
handsome goes among
such forms, being vel-
vety brown and having
the body above and the
legs marked with sil-
very lines and blotches.

They do not enlarge as do the females when gorged
with blood, though, if removed and the head left in
the flesh, a bad running sore is apt to result. The

Fig. 33— Wood Tick.

(Male; much enlarged.)

THE GROUND LIZARD. 101

young, called "seed ticks/' are in these southern
woods very plentiful and irritating, climbing on to
the leaves and branches, from whence they are
brushed on to one's clothing.

In passing through these upland pine woods and
hammocks, one often notes a small brown tail wig-
gling and just disappearing beneath a bunch of dead
leaves or a fallen giant leaf of the cabbage palmetto.
Investigation will show the tail to belong to the
ground lizard, Oligosoma laterale Say. Above, the
body is chestnut brown ; below, silvery white to base
of tail, where the white merges into blue. A band
of black begins at the snout and runs back along the
side to the middle of tail. The total length is usually
less than five inches.

The ground lizard is our smallest saurian. When
undisturbed, it is a slow moving, tail-wagging, wrig-
gling-onward reptile, but when frightened, it moves

Fig. 34-Ground Lizard.

with much celerity and quickly finds a shelter. Hoi-
brook has well described its habits as follows : "The

102 A MATURE WOOING.

ground lizard may be seen by thousands in the thick
forests of the southern states. They emerge from
their retreats after sunset, in search of small insects
and worms, on which they live; yet their motions are
so quick and they disappear so rapidly, that they
might at first be easily mistaken for crickets or other
insects. Though so numerous, it is difficult to secure
them alive ; for when approached they conceal them-
selves with astonishing quickness under the roots of
the old and decaying trees, or beneath fallen leaves,
or other vegetable substances. This decaying vege-
table matter sometimes forms a stratum several inches
thick, containing numerous holes and crevices, to
which they can easily retreat. We have never ob-
served it ascend trees in its attempts to escape when
pursued."*

March 26, 1899. — The early morning was damp
and misty. About nine o'clock the sun beamed forth
and, aided by a strong breeze, dispelled the fog. I
made my way westward toward the old chimneys.
Near the railway I saw the body of a wild cat, Lynx
rufus Guld., which had evidently been killed last
night by a train. This mammal is said to be still fre-
quent in the hammocks and denser forests, but seldom
approaches so closely to the town. Its range appears
to be the whole of North America.

Beneath a chunk in the sandy roadway were a
dozen or more gigantic millipedes of the genus Spir-

*N. Am. Herp., 1, 1836, p. 72.

CH&YSOMEL1D BEETLES. 103

obolus, coiled up in burrows in the mold and sand.
They are the largest examples I have yet seen, being
four and a half inches in length, grayish brown in
color and with a median row of small reddish spots
along the dorsal surface.

On the leaves of the saw palmetto, I find occasion-
ally a small and very handsome Chrysomelid beetle,
which adheres to the leaf so closely that I can scarcely
pull it away. It is one of the tortoise beetles, Porphy-
raspis cyanea Say, deep violaceus blue in color, and
less than one-quarter of an inch in size. The thorax
is emarginate in front, so that the head is visible from
above, while the outer wings and thorax contain nu-
merous large pits or punctures. A single example of
a closely allied, but larger form, Chelymorpha argus
Licht., not before listed from Florida, was also taken
from a leaf of a convolvulus plant. It is reddish
brown, with vestiges of small black spots, on wings
and thorax, and is much smaller than in Indiana,
where it occurs frequently on the leaves of bind-
weeds. The spots are also much larger in the north-
ern specimens. They are seventeen in number, so
that by Say the insect was described as C. 17-punc-
tata.

In the old fields and pine-barrens of this region one
often sees a great mound of sand thrown up about the
mouth of a large burrow, which resembles closely that
of the ground-hog or woodchuck of the northern
states. However, it is not the home of a mammal, but

104 A NATURE WOOING.

of a dry land terrapin or tortoise, known as the
"gopher," Xerobates polyphemus Daudin. This is a
large, thick-bodied turtle, whose fore-limbs are espe-
cially strong on account of the centuries of subter-
ranean digging in which its ancestors have engaged.
In color it is an ash brown above, and yellow below.
The head is darker, sometimes being almost black.
Recent writers place its maximum size at fifteen
inches, but Bartram, writing in 1Y91, said that "when
arrived at its greatest magnitude, the upper shell is
near eighteen inches in length and ten to twelve
inches in breadth.77 It is possible that the size has de-
creased since he wrote. The few specimens which I
have seen were less than a foot in length.

The gopher is herbivorous and both nocturnal and
diurnal, being often seen feeding in the afternoon.
Like the common northern box turtle, Cistudo Caro-
lina L,, when disturbed it retracts its head and feet
and hisses like a goose ; but seldom snaps or attempts
to bite. Both Bartram and Holbrook state that its
flesh is used for food, but this does not seem to be the
case in Florida. However, they and other turtles are
often chopped up and fed to hogs and poultry. It is a
common belief that the burrows of the gopher extend
down to ground water, but Mr. H. GL Hubbard, who
excavated several of them, says that the galleries are
eighteen or twenty feet long in the sandy ridges re-
mote from water, and that they descend in a straight
course at an angle of 35°, and terminate abruptly,

GUESTS OF THE GOPHER. 105

usually in a layer of indurated subsoil, at a depth of
eight or nine feet below the surface. Since but little
has been written concerning the home of the gopher,
and the companions with which it is surrounded in
that home, I quote at length from Mr. Hubbard's in-
teresting description, as follows:

"Like its European relative, the gopher is a very
long-lived animal. That it may live more than one
hundred years I am inclined to believe is true. Cer-
tain it is that a quarter of a century brings little or no
change to a full-grown tortoise, and the oldest inhabit-
ants in Florida can not tell of the beginnings of some
of their burrows. Such ancient and well-established
domiciles, with entrances always invitingly open, nat-
urally serve as places of refuge for many animals,
when hard pressed by enemies, or to night prowlers
when daylight overtakes them far from their proper
homes. Even the rattlesnake, according to popular
repute, has a more than passing acquaintance with
these cool retreats.

"A number of years ago I learned that the gopher
has for a permanent guest, a sort of parlor boarder,
as it were, a batrachian, commonly called the 'gopher
toad.7 Specimens of these I frequently saw on sum-
mer evenings sitting at the entrance of the burrows
after the manner of toads, quietly waiting for their
supper to come to them. On the slightest alarm these
timid creatures leaped quickly back into the gopher
hole and saved themselves, so that it was not until

106 A NATURE WOOING.

lately that I succeeded in capturing a specimen, and
found to my surprise that the so-called toad was a ver-
itable frog. The herpetologists of the National Mu-
seum, to whom I have recently forwarded specimens,
pronounce it the very rare subspecies Rana areolata
cvsopiis Cope. Indeed, only the type specimen ex-
isted in the Museum collection, and of its habits noth-
ing is known.

"The desire to know something more of the gopher
and its associates led me finally to undertake the la-
borious task of excavating and thoroughly examining
one of their burrows. Accordingly, in January, 1893,
I selected one of the largest burrows near my winter
home at Crescent City, Florida, and proceeded to
open and inspect its inner recesses. The excavation
was in the loose yellow sand of our pine woods sub-
soil, and when my exploration was completed, so large
a pit had been dug that a coach and span of horses
might have been swallowed up in it.

"I had not descended many feet along the course
of the burrow when I found that the walls and, par-
ticularly the roof of the gallery, were alive with speci-
mens of a wingless cricket* of the genus Ceutho-
philus.

"I next caught a glimpse of a very diaphanous Sta-
phylinid, but so agile was this beetle and so like in
color to the surrounding sand that several specimens
slipped in succession through my fingers and escaped

"Not a true cricket, but a member of the family Locustidae — W. S. B.

THE HOME OF THE GOPHER. 107

me. In subsequent explorations I recaptured this in-
sect, which proves to be a Philonthus hitherto unde-
scribed, and remarkable for its slenderness of stature,
its lack of color, and the distinctly subterranean ap-
pearance which marks a true cave insect and dweller
in darkness. As I approached the end of the burrow,
the sand became fairly alive with larvae and imagoes
of a small Aphodius beetle, also a colorless and unde-
scribed species, very subterranean in appearance.

"At the extreme end of the tunnel I found the
gopher, quiescent but not dormant and resting upon
a thin layer of fibrous material, evidently the winter
accumulation of its excreta, in which could be plainly
discerned the coarser and undigested portions of the
leaves and vegetation which formed its food. Beneath
this layer the sand was mined in every direction with
the burrows of insects, and I soon had a considerable
collection, among which was a Copris beetle, which,
from its size and general appearance, I took without
doubt to be the universally distributed Copris min-
utus of our barnyards. But, upon comparison with
the known forms of the genus, this proves to be quite
a new and distinct species.

"Besides the main deposit of refuse matter upon
which the animal was resting, I found several smaller
deposits which had evidently been pressed aside and
partly imbedded in the sand by the movements of the
turtle. These were all centers of attraction for the
dung-eating beetles, but I found lurking in one of

108 A NATURE WOOING.

the masses a number of lepidopterous larvae an inch
or so long. Their dusky brown coloration so closely
corresponded with the material in which they lay con-
cealed that I would probably have overlooked them
had not their lively antics, their wriggling and twist-
ing when disturbed, made them very conspicuous
objects.

"Only three burrows were opened in January, and
of these one alone was inhabited by the gopher. In
the month of July following, I examined a larger
number of gopher burrows, and in all eight galleries
were carefully and thoroughly explored. The mid-
summer explorations greatly increased the knowledge
previously gained of the habits of the gopher insects
and added several new forms to the list."4

Altogether, Mr. Hubbard found one frog and thir-
teen species of insects living with the gophers. Of the
insects, eight were beetles, and of these seven were
species new to science. The other was the only
beetle found living with the gopher which also occurs
above ground. Besides the beetles, the insects col-
lected were a deltoid moth, the wingless "cricket"
above mentioned; a pseudo-scorpion and two species
of ticks. All of these but one were undescribed. Thus
it will be seen that this interesting association of
messmates and parasites of the gopher forms a dis-
tinctively underground fauna in which the beginning
of true cave life is very instructively shown.

* Insect Life, VI, 1894, p. 303, et seq.

AT ORMOND BY THE SEA. 109

The sand fly, or gnat, a minute grayish midge, less
than one-sixteenth of an inch in length, has made its
spring appearance. Its bite is sharp and penetrating,
and, when present in numbers, it is one of the worst
insect pests along the coast.

Though news of a great storm of snow and sleet has
come to us from the north to-day, the air, sun and veg-
etation here is like that of mid-May in central Indi-
ana. Here in this clearing in the woods is peace and
quietude, taught but the occasional hum of a mos-
quito and the soughing of the wind through the pines
doth break the solitude. How strange it seems that
but a few hours' ride will take us into a land of pierc-
ing cold and drifting snow, when here is a perfect sky,
Avith the sun shedding his blessings o'er all his subjects
with a kindly spirit. No snow, no ice, no leafless, life-
less trees, no drooping floAvers are here to-day. Noth-
ing but joy and sunshine and gladness are the portion
of nature's objects.

March 21, 1899. — This morning I breakfasted
early and then trudged along the railway for three
miles or more to the bridge across the Tomoka River.
A heavy dew and cloudy skies at first surrounded me,
but the rays of "old Sol" soon dried the dew and scat-
tered the clouds.

At nine o'clock I am sitting in the shadow formed
by a bold, overhanging cliff of coquina limestone, a
natural concrete made from finely ground beach
shells, cemented by carbonate of lime. 'Tis a sub-

110

A NATURE WOOING.

stance well nigh indestructible, of which were built
the oldest forts and houses by the Caucasians in
America, those of the first settlers at St. Augustine.
JTis the first cliff of any kind I have seen in Florida.
I rest my back and head against it and gaze down at
the dark waters of the Tomoka, deep, shadowy, slow
flowing. At my right is a cabbage palmetto, lifting

its crown of leaves
fifty feet above
me. Bending far
out from the edge
jof the cliff and
overhanging the
water is a live
oak, unwedgeable
and gnarled, its
branches clad here
and there with
long pendent tufts
of gray Span-
ish moss. Poly-
pody ferns and
poison ivy spring
from the crevices
along the face of
the rock. A hand-
some climbing vine, with compound evergreen
leaves and red trumpet shaped flowers two inches in
length, twines among the tree tops and sprangles over

Fig. 35— Cross Vine. (After Britton.)

(Showing flowers aud fruit pod two-fifths natural size.)

DARK WATERS. Ill

the face of the cliff. 7Tis the cross vine, Bignonia
capreolata L., own cousin to our northern trumpet
creeper, and bearing the latter company as far north-
ward as the valley of the lower Wabash. Several red
cedars of large size add a tinge of somberness to the
scene. All is as quiet as the grave. ISTo song of bird,
no hum of insect breaks the solitude.

Bartram accounts for the dark hue of the water in
these southern lowland streams as follows: "In all
the flat countries of Carolina and Florida, the waters
of the rivers are, in some degree, turgid, and have a
dark hue, 'owing to the annual firing of the forests and
plains; and afterwards the heavy rains washing the
light surface of the burnt earth into rivulets, which
rivulets running rapidly over the surface of the earth,
flow into the rivers, and tinge the waters the color
of lye or beer."*

It is probable that the Vast amount of decaying
vegetation in the low hammocks has also much to do
with the color of the water, since the rills and brooks
from these hammocks feed, for the most part, the
larger streams. Wherever a spring issues from bank
or cliff, or wells up from far below the surface, the
water is as clear as in our northern springs.

A water snake wriggles and squirms its way
through the darksome waters, headed toward the op-
posite shore ; but when a third of the way across turns
tail and returns to its mate. It mav be the cotton-

Loe. cit., p. 223.

112 A NATURE WOOING.

mouth, Ancistrodon piscivorus Hoik, whose bite is
reputed more poisonous than that of the diamond rat-
tlesnake. It may be a harmless Tropidonotus. I am
too far above it to determine which.

A sign board on a tree on the crest of the cliff
states that "This is Buckhead Bluff, the site of the old
ferry of the 'King's Road,' constructed by the Eng-
lish 150 years ago from St. Mary's, Georgia, 400 miles
southward into Florida." What care I for that?
'Tis a bluff of stone in a land where bluffs are almost
unknown. 'Tis something akin to those ledges which
I have climbed time upon time in days of yore.

I note the body of a butterfly lying beside me and
its presence begets a revery on death — that death
which cometh to one and all in some form — which
is as inevitable as the rising of to-morrow's sun.
Whether it comes to the mansion of the rich, where
every desire of the invalid is granted, or to the hovel
of the hermit, where solitude is its only companion ;
whether it conies in the cool shade on the mountain's
side, or in the burning glare of the noonday sun on a
desert waste, it matters little ; it can come but once.
Peace and forgetfulness are its accompaniments. All
hopes, all fears, all hatreds, all loves, all desires, all
passions, become forever things of the past. The step
is taken into the great unknown. Millions, aye, hun-
dreds of billions of human forms, of plant and animal
forms, have gone — not one has e'er returned to tell
us of the way. All concerning it is guess work. The

RE VER Y ON DEA TH. 113

wisdom of years' experience stored in the gray matter
of cerebral cells availeth nothing. The clay — the
matter — is left behind. The living part — the energy
— passeth beyond. Like that heat which, transmitted
into electric power, propels a car, and then, by fric-
tion, passes into space, so the energy of all living
forms joins that sum total of all energies, which per-
vadeth the universe. The thoughts which man has
inscribed, the good which he has done to his fellow-
man; the ambitions, the loves, the hopes which he
has inspired, are left and become a part of the world's
wealth, for the future use of mankind.

He who can get his pleasures during life from sim-
ple, common things, is the happiest, the richest. I£
the song of bird, the habits of insects, the colors of
flowers and the graceful forms of leaves afford me
material for thought and reason, and lead to my con-
tentment, I am most fortunate. Then, O Mature, let
me be a devotee to thee while life remains! For,
when death calls and forgetfulness of thy charms be-
comes my lot —

"Thy womb once more shall shield thy child within,
And I shall be what I before have been,

A part of thee, by thee caressed,

My first beloved, my last, my best,
My mother, mother Nature. ' '

March 28, 1899. — The day, hot and sultry, the
mercury at 82 ° F. at breakfast time. I don my thin-
nest coat, and clad only in that garb which I wear on

114

A NATURE WOOING.

hottest day in midsummer, I sally forth — to bathe in
the sunshine and inhale full inspirations of pure air
— the two chief blessings which this land offers free
to all who come.

Fig. 36— Plicated Woodpecker. (After Beal.)

On my way toward the shell mound I note the gal-
loping flight of that king of woodpeckers, Ceophlceus
pileatus L. In great, long sweeping curves he moves

THE PILEATED WOODPECKER. 115

onward. What a power in his pectoral muscles!
Alighting on an oak and glancing about, his eagle eye
soon perceives me — a supposed enemy. His crest,
redder than arterial blood, is erected, stands straight
up. He hops upward along the branch, gives an in-
voluntary peck or two, but all the time I am the
cynosure of his eagle-like glances. He moves part
way around the limb on which he rests, then, as I
take a step forward to get a better view, he is away
in that strong, unerring, galloping flight, to the
deeper shades of the forest. A few moments later
I see another. Here in the forest primeval they hold
their own. Here they cope with all enemies. Here
they fight successfully the battle of life. Their ease
of movement, their independence, puts, for the time
being, new hope in my heart, new courage in my soul.
Why may not I be as full of spirits, as free of flight,
as independent, as this creature of the air, this wood-
pecker, the pileated ?

Yesterday afternoon I ran across a new locust in
the old orange orchard, where I have found the first
specimens of most of the Orthopterans I have taken.
The males were most abundant; the females just
moulting for the last time. It proves to be Melano-
plus propinquus McNeill, closely allied to the com-
mon northern M. femur-rubrum DeG. It is a slender
bodied, long winged species, dull in color, but grace-
ful in movement. They are active leapers, flying
noiselessly for several rods, and then settling down

116 A NATURE WOOING.

upon a bunch of grass, the color of which is grayish

brown, like that of their backs.

A long-winged male of the common field cricket,

Gryllus pennsylvanicus Burm., is taken to-day. This

appears to be the only species of Gryllus hereabouts

at this season. The
short-winged form .is
much the more com-
mon, but four of the
long-winged ones being-
taken during the whole

Fig. 37-A Field Cricket. of my collecting. The

Gryllus pennsylvanicus Burm. . ,

species ranges over the
whole United States, and varies much in size.

I note the remains of ferns high up on the cab-
bage palmettos, among the "boot jacks," just below
the crown of leaves. There they found nourishment
in the summer months, but the unwonted frosts have
sapped their vitality and left them brown and sere.

If one wants peace and quiet, soothing sunshine
and balmy breezes, here is his ideal resting place on
such a day as this — here in a pine and palmetto grove,
where the only sound is that of a falling leaf or
creaking branch, and where the woodsy odor of pines
is present day and night,

March 29, 1899. — Yesterday noon the mercury
stood at 92° ; last night at ten o'clock, at 80° ; this
morn, at five, it had sunk to 48°. Such are the
changes to which one is subjected here in the "Land

TEE LONQ-LEAVED PINE. 117

of Flowers." It seems that spring here, as in the
north, oftentimes lingers; like a coy maiden — now
advancing, now retreating. Some of these days the
coyness will be thrust aside, and with a mighty rush
and joyous embrace she will enthrall us, and soon
merge into the perfect woman — the June of summer.
To-day I walk to the Tomoka cabin at Misener's
Landing. The way takes me past the "old chimneys,"
over a causeway wide and beautiful, which winds in
and out among palms and palmettos, moss and dense
foliage. This is succeeded by a mile of sandy road,
bordered with underbrush, beyond which are the
high, open pine woods. Scattered at intervals among
the pines, is a scrubby live oak with dense evergreen
foliage. Here and there is a pine snapped off in the
breeze, but otherwise the woods are free from ob-
structions. 'Tis the long-leaved pine, Pinus palus-
tris Mill., 'which flourishes in these barrens. The
needles or leaves are at times eighteen inches in
length. The stems of the young trees are scaly or
scurfy to the top. This is the most common species of
pine in east Florida, and the most valuable of all the
pines growing in the southern states. From its lum-
ber the houses and fences are mainly constructed,
while from its sap or juice, ninety per cent, of the
resin, turpentine, pitch and tar of commerce are ob-
tained. It has a number of common names other
than long-leaved pine, among which yellow pine, pitch
pine, red pine and broom pine are the ones most

118 A NATURE WOOING.

used. The specific name palustris, meaning, "swamp-
growing," which was assigned to it when its habits
were but little known, is a misnomer, inasmuch as the
tree flourishes best on dry and sandy, rather than
damp, soil. On account of the abundance and value
of this pine, I have thought best to include herewith
the following extracts from Michaux's excellent de-
scription of the tree and its products:

"The long-leaved pine is found almost without in-
terruption in the lower part of the Carolinas, Geor-
gia and the Floridas, over a tract more than six hun-
dred miles long from northeast to southwest, and
more than one hundred miles broad back from the
sea. The mean stature of this pine is sixty or sev-
enty feet, with an uniform diameter of fifteen or
eighteen inches for two-thirds of this height. Some
stocks, favored by local circumstances, attain much
larger dimensions, particularly in east Florida. The
bark is somewhat furrowed, and the epidermis de-
taches itself in thin transparent sheets. The leaves
are about a foot long, of a beautiful brilliant green,
united to the number of three in the same sheath, and
collected in bunches at the extremity of the branches.
They are longer and more numerous on the young
stocks, which are sometimes cut by the negroes for
brooms. The buds are very large, white, fringed and
not resinous.

"The bloom takes place in April ; the male flowers
form masses of divergent violet-colored aments about

PRODUCTS OF THE LONG-LEAVED PINE. 119

two inches long; in drying they shed great quantities
of yellowish pollen, which is diffused by the wind and
forms a momentary covering on the surface of the
land and water. The cones are very large, being
seven or eight inches long, and four inches thick
when open, and are armed with small retorted spines.
In the fruitful year they are ripe about the 15th of
October, and shed their seeds the same month. The
kernel is of an agreeable taste, and is contained in a
thin white shell, surmounted by a membrane; in
every other species of American Pine the shell is
black. Sometimes the seeds are very abundant, and
are voraciously eaten by wild turkeys, squirrels, and
the swine that live almost wholly in the woods. But,
in the unfruitful year, a forest of a hundred miles in
extent may be ransacked without finding a single
cone.

"The resinous products of the long-leaved pine are
of five sorts, viz. : Crude turpentine, spirits of turpen-
tine, resin, tar and pitch. The last two are delivered
in their natural state ; the others are modified by the
agency of fire in certain modes of preparation. Crude
turpentine is the sap of the tree obtained by making
incisions in its trunk. It begins to distil about the
middle of March, when the circulation commences,
and flows with increasing abundance as the weather
becomes warmer, so that July and August are the
most productive months. When the circulation is
slackened by the chills of autumn, the operation is

120 A NATURE WOOING.

discontinued, and the remainder of the year is occu-
pied in preparatory labors for the following season,
which consist — first, in making the boxes. This is
done in January and February ; in the base of each
tree, about three or four inches from the ground,
and of preference on the south side, a cavity is
formed, commonly of the capacity of three pints, but
proportioned to the size of the trunk, of which it
should occupy a quarter of the diameter; on stocks
more than six feet in circumference, two, and some-
times four, boxes are made on opposite sides. Next
comes the raking, or the clearing of the ground at the
foot of the trees from leaves and herbage, by which
means they are secured against the fires that are often
kindled in the woods by the carelessness of travelers
and wagoners. If the flames gain the boxes already
impregnated with turpentine, they are rendered use-
less and others must be made. Notching is merely
making at the sides of the box two oblique gutters,
about three inches long, to conduct into it the sap that
exudes from the edges of the wound. In the interval
of a fortnight, which is employed in this operation,
the first boxes become filled with sap. A wooden
shovel is used to transfer it to pails, which, in turn,
are emptied into casks placed at convenient distances.
To increase the product, the upper edge of the box is
chipped once a week, the bark and a portion of the al-
burnum being removed to the depth of four concentri-
cal circles. The boxes fill every three weeks. After

TAR AND TURPENTINE. 121

five or six years the tree is abandoned; the upper
edge of the wound becomes cicatrized, but the bark
is never restored sufficiently for the renewal of the
process.

"The crude turpentine, when distilled in large cop-
per retorts, yields up about seventeen per cent, of its
bulk in the form of an oil, known as 'spirits of tur-
pentine.' This is the ordinary 'turpentine' of the
drug stores. The residuum of the distillation is resin.

"All the tar of the southern states is made from
dead wood of the long-leaved pine, consisting of trees
prostrated by time or by the fire kindled annually in
the forests; of the summits of those that are felled
for timber, and of limbs broken off by the ice which
sometimes overloads the leaves. To procure the tar,
a kiln is formed in a part of the forest abounding in
dead wood ; this is first collected, stripped of the sap,
and cut into billets two or three feet long and about
three inches thick ; a task which is rendered long and
difficult by the knots. The next step is to prepare a
place for piling it ; for this purpose a shallow conical
cavity is excavated in the side of a bank or hill, and a
cast iron pan placed at the bottom, from which leads
a spout into a barrel for collecting the tar. On this
pan is piled the wood in a circle. The pile when
finished is cone shaped — twenty feet in diameter be-
low, and ten to twelve feet high. It is then strewed
with pine leaves, covered with earth, and contained
at the sides with a slight cincture of wood. This cov-

122 A NATURE WOOING.

ering is necessary in order that the fire kindled at the
top may penetrate to the bottom with a slow and
gradual combustion. If the whole mass was rapidly
inflamed, the operation would fail and the labor in
part be lost ; in fine, nearly the same precautions are
exacted in this process as are observed in making
charcoal. A kiln, which is to afford one hundred or
one hundred and thirty barrels of tar, is eight or nine
days in burning. Pitch is tar reduced by evapora-
tion ; it should not be diminished beyond half its bulk
to be of a good quality."*

Far in the distance I hear a sign of civilization —
the crow of a rooster. Long live his clarion voiced
tongue ! In the past it has guided me out of many a
wilderness.

Beneath the dead bark of a pine snag, I take a
large oblong Tenebrio beetle, Polypleurus nitidus
Lee. It is black, with numerous rows of punctures on
its outer wings, and is said to occur frequently in the
pine woods of this region.

Once more I sit at the festal board on the porch of
the Tomoka cabin, but sit alone. The merry party
that gathered round this table on last Friday has scat-
tered, never to meet again. And what of life have I
learned since here we met? What of hope have I
had? It matters little whether with party gay, or
whether in solitude, one's conscience is ever present,
one's memory is ever with him. The wind soughs

* North American Sylva, III, 1819, pp. 134, et seq.

GRAINS OF SAND. 123

through the pines with mournful cadence and sets the
long tufts of moss a-dangling. The wind blows more
in Florida than any place I have ever been, but it is
usually tempered with sunshine, and, therefore, less
disagreeable.

But list — the sound of a human voice breaks my
solitude — a woman's voice, clear and flute-like. I
look around and find that a party of ladies have come
out from my boarding house and have brought my
lunch, as well as theirs. I need not, therefore, hurry
away. I can turn over more chunks, explore more
pathways, wend more slowly my footsteps homeward.

These sands on which I sit and which form the sur-
face in these woods, could, if given the power of
speech, tell a wonderful story. What was the birth-
place of the silicon which forms their grains ? Of what
ledge of rock were they first a part ? For untold mil-
lions of years, as man counts time, have they existed !
Again and again have they been swept hither and
thither by the forces of nature. Winds and waves
have been the powers which have wafted them on —
the steeds which have pulled them along. Were it
not for the grass roots which now bind them together
and hold them in place, the wind now blowing would
send them scurrying before it. To-morrow's breezes
might bring them back. Thus the area over which
they would travel in a century might be only a small
portion of the surface of the earth.

124 A NATURE WOOING.

In the mold and sand beneath a chunk I find a
worm-like snake, or a snake-like worm, I know not
which. It is a foot in length and of a purplish flesh
color ; has a head covered with plates like a snake, but
no eyes. The body is encircled with numerous whorls
or rings, each of which, under the lens, is seen to be
made up of many minute oblong plates. The tail is
less than an inch in length and depressed above. On
its upper surface the last dozen rings have their plates
modified into transverse rows of tubercles. It resem-
bles very much a gigantic fishing worm. It is quite
lively, coiling itself about my fingers, in the same
manner as does the brown worm snake, Carphophiops
amoena Say, of the north, and darting forth its white
tongue in true snake-like fashion.

On my way home I stop and rest for a while in the
doorway of a deserted cabin in the midst of the pine
woods. The floor and door of the cabin are gone.
Window, it had none. The walls are of pine logs five
to seven inches in diameter, unchinked, with a space
cut through one of them for a stove pipe to protrude.
It contains a single room, twenty-five feet square, and
is roofed with pine clapboards. That it has long been
deserted is evidenced by numerous young pines which
have sprung up close about it.

What hopes, what fears, what ambitions, what de-
spairs, what loves, what hates, have existed or have
been engendered in this old cabin ! What lives have
here begun their existence ? What souls have here

A LEGLESS LIZARD. 125

received their last unction before departing into the
great unknown ? Now the wild grape clambers o'er
the roof. Chamseleons and blue-tailed skinks hide
in the crannies between the logs. Cockroaches and
centipedes crawl and creep beneath the beams which
supported the floor. Here, in the midst of the pine
woods, unf enced and unnoticed, the cabin stands. It
was once a home to some contented soul, but now only
the creeping, crawling creatures which I have noted
make of it a temporary abiding place. Perchance, in
time of storm, a hoot owl finds shelter beneath its roof
and mocks the ghostly voices of its departed human
occupants.

On arriving home I confer with my books, and am
surprised to find that my chief capture of the day is
neither a snake nor a worm, but a legless lizard, Rhin-
eura floridana Baird.
It is known only from
Florida, having been
described in 1858 from
a specimen taken at
Micanopy. It is called
by the natives the '
"blind wor in," or Fig. 33.

"blind Snake," and is

-. Jl (Top and side riews of head »nd top viaw of tail,

exhumed. by per- showing traverse rows of tubercles.)

sons digging or grub-

bing in the gardens or plowing in the orange groves.

Boulenger, in his "Catalogue of Lizards in the Brit-

126 A NATURE WOOING.

ish Museum/7 enumerates sixty-one existing species
of Amphisbmnidae, the family to which these curious
snake-like saurians belong. Of these, thirty-eight are
American, but one of which, the species at hand, oc-
curs north of the Tropic of Cancer, though remains
of a fossil form, Rhineura hatclierii Bauer, have been
found in the Oligocene rocks of South Dakota.

As in most other subterranean and cave forms, rudi-
ments of eyes are present, concealed beneath the
skin. All the members of the family are burrowers,
and many live in ants' nests. They bore narrow gal-
leries in the earth, in which, like an earth worm, they
are able to move backwards, as well as forwards. On
the ground they progress in a straight line by slight
vertical undulations, not by lateral movements, as in
other limbless reptiles. The tail of many species is
more or less prehensile. The food of all these lizards
consists mainly of ants and other small insects and
worms.*

March SO, 1899. — Seventy-two degrees at break-
fast time ! What a change from yesterday ! It threat-
ens rain, but rains not. The sky is overcast with
clouds, yet, at intervals, the sun thrusts his counte-
nance — here ever smiling — through the rifts and
beams upon me. I take my way slowly to the base of
the friendly pine. The tree sympathizes with me
when human beings lack in sympathy.

* I afterwards took two mangled specimens of this lizard in the road-
way near the shell mound; and since returning to Indiana, have had a
number of specimens sent me from the vicinity of Ormond.

DUST UNTO DUST. 127

One hears, at long intervals, a tree creak, crack
and fall in the pine woods. JTis probably some snag
which the breeze has at last overcome. The noise
startles one's soul. 'Tis a weird, uncanny sound. 'Tis
unexpected, unlocked for. The creaking of the tree,
as its roots are torn asunder, or its fibers broken, is
not so appalling as the thud with which it strikes the
earth. The latter is eager to once more clasp its form
in her embrace ; to have once more the carbon, hydro-
gen and oxygen of its bole and branches as part of her
bosom. She leaps to receive it. Body of earth meets
body of tree with equal fervor. Thud answers thud.
'Twill not be long till the juices of decay will rend the
fibers of the fallen tree; not long till the elements
now composing branch and limb will be scattered
far and wide in fit condition to become once more
a part of some organic being. The earth is ever
eager to receive the dead or worn-out objects to
which, in the past, she has given birth. More eager
is she to put their bodies into such a shape that the
elements can be used again. Thus does our common
mother prepare and yield up sustenance for her off-
spring. Thus only is she able to renew her progeny
— to cover her surface with new generations of liv-
ing, active forms.

A little distance from my pine tree I find that these
woods have been the scene of a great holocaust within
the past few days. Myriads of living forms have
been swept to their death by the demon — fire. It has

128 A NATURE WOOING.

cleared the surface of underbrush as far towards the
northwest as eye can reach. Saw palmettos are
withered and dead. The boles of pines and cabbage
palmettos are scorched to a dingy black, for a height
of twenty feet or more. The charred remains of
myriapods, turtles and snakes abound. Chewinks and
other ground birds are lamenting their accustomed
feeding places. All is ruin and devastation, and an-
other woods must I seek in order to find recreation
and life.

The so-called sea trout, Cynoscion nebulosus Cuv.
and Yal., caught from the bridge at Onnond, is not a

Fig. 39— Sea Trout.

Cynoscion nebulosus Cuv. and Val.
(Krom Bull. 47, U. 8. Nat. Mus.)

trout, but a "weak fish," belonging to the family
Scicenidae. It is probably called a trout on account
of the many small black blotches which are scattered
irregularly over its silvery sides. Mr. Bristol hooked
one in the back to-day and succeeded in landing it,
which weighed a little more than seven and a half

GROUSE LOCUSTS.

129

pounds. Its flesh is rich and delicate, and it is highly
valued as a food fish. Mr. B., though seventy-four
years of age, has killed with a rifle sixty-seven squir-
rels this past winter. Last year he killed one hundred
and four, and the year before more than two hun-
dred. All were gray squirrels — a third smaller than
the same species in the north.

In the damp cleared area near the border of a ham-
mock I found three species of "grouse locusts," be-
longing to as many genera. They are
the smallest of our Acrididae, being,
when full grown, less than a half inch
in length. The thorax is prolonged
as a hard crust, covering the wings

Fig. 40-A
Grouse Locust^

TettigidcE lateralit

and body. They pass the winter, as
mature insects, beneath logs and rub-
bish and are to be seen leaping ac-
tively about on any warm sunny day,
even in mid-winter. One of those
taken to-day, Paratettix rugosus Scudd.,
is a strong and active flyer.

With these little acridians I also found a number
of those small, sand burrowing crickets, Ellipes min-
uta Scudd. They likewise are the smallest of the
crickets found in North America, as when full grown
they are but one-fifth of an inch in length. The fore
tibiae are much enlarged, as is the case with all bur-
rowers which possess limbs. They live in little pits
in the sand, from which thev venture forth a short

130 A NATURE WOOING.

distance in search of food. When disturbed or
frightened they are powerful leapers. I have seen
them jump to a height of five feet, and to a distance
as great. Three known species occur in North Amer-
ica, the other two belonging to the genus Tridactylus,
being nearly twice as large as E. minuta.* This
dwarf form ranges as far north as central Indiana,
where it is common. It is dark brown in color, with
the legs banded and thorax spotted with white.

Fig. 41— Ajax Butterfly.

Papilio ajax L.

Specimens of the Ajax butterfly, before mentioned,
were secured to-day for the first time, and prove to be
the variety floridensis Holland, characterized by the

* S. H. Scudder, Psyche, Feb., 1902, p. 309.

THE JUMPING MULLET. 131

greater breadth and intensity of the black bands on
the upper side of the wings. It appears to be rather
common in this region during March.

March 31, 1899. — To-day the sun shone brightly,
and Mr. B. and I rowed two miles up the Halifax and
landed on the peninsula. On the way up we rowed
through a school of mullet, and one of them leaped
into the boat. While the boat was at anchor a second
jumped into it, and on the way back a third did like-
wise. This one began jumping sixty or eighty feet
distant, and after giving six great leaps, clearing each
time eight to ten feet of water, essayed a seventh, and
landed squarely between us. Mr. B. had already told
me of going out at night with another party and a

Fig. 42— Mullet.

Mugil cephalus L.
(From Bull. 47, U. 8. Nat. Mas.)

lantern in a boat, in the latter part of April, when
this fish was running in great numbers, and having
361 leap into the boat during an hour and a half's
row. I had hitherto regarded this as a somewhat

132 A NATURE WOOING.

overdrawn "fish story," but, taking into considera-
tion to-day's experience, and B.'s reputation for ve-
racity, have concluded that it may be relied upon.

This mullet, Mugil cephalus L., is a fish of wide
range, occurring in the Atlantic from Cape Cod to
Brazil ; also along the coasts of southern Europe and
northern Africa, as well as in the Pacific from Monte-
rey to Chili.

Like the common fresh water "suckers" of the
north, it travels in schools, and seldom, if ever, bites
the hook. It reaches the length of two feet, has a
rather flat head and large eyes, abdominal ventral
fins, and soft rays. The flesh of the mullet is soft
and bony, and soon spoils ; but it is much used for
food on account of its great numbers and the ease
with which it is taken.

Besides the mullet and the "sea trout," already
mentioned, the drum-fish, Pogonias cromis L., is often
caught from the bridge at Ormond, one specimen
weighing forty-five pounds having been taken in Feb-
ruary. It is rather a coarse fish, of no grea.t value as
food. The largest specimen on record was taken a few
years ago at St. Augustine, and weighed 146 pounds.
Sea-bass, Scwenops ocettatus L., weighing ten to sixty
pounds, are frequently caught in the surf, as are also
sharks of much larger size.

Near where we landed on the peninsula, a pretty
woodland path has been cut out through the under-
brush across that body of land to the sea. By pass-

SOME FLORIDA BEETLES. 133

ing along this path, for which in places the sand has
been excavated for three or four feet, one notes that
the surface of the peninsula is composed of alternate
high sandy ridges and low swales. Its western half
is evidently of much the older origin, since on it are
large pines, oaks, hickories, etc. ; while the eastern
portion bears only a thick chaparral of saw palmetto,
with here and there a clump of scrub oaks.

April 1, 1899. — All the morning clouds hid the
sun, and nature wept copious tears. In other words,
it rained — torrents at times — gently at intervals. A
little after ten the heavens cleared and I went forth
along the woodland lane in search of beetles.

On the leaves of an oak, I found a pair of small
scarabs, Diplotaxis languida Lee., described from
Tampa in 1878, and known only from Florida. It is
light brown in color, and but one-quarter of an inch
in length ; the male, as commonly, more slender than
the other sex. A leaf of another oak yielded a speci-
men of a handsome Chrysomelid, Cryptocephalus bi-
vius E~ewm., one-fifth of an inch in length. Its tho-
rax bears four lengthwise stripes each of black and
yellow, while the elytra, or outer wings, are brick red,
with three transverse rows of black spots. It is a rare
species of our southern insect fauna. A closely allied
species, C. guttulata Oliv., was also taken from a
nearby shrub.

On my way to the shell mound, where I am now
writing, I met an old friend, Calosoma scrutator Fab.,

134

A NATURE WOOING.

walking rapidly over the fallen leaves in the palmetto
groves. I said "Hello/7 and consigned him to my
cyanide bottle, to remind me in future years that he

is found mature on
April Fool's Day in
Florida. This large,
bright colored beetle
is not recorded in any
of the published lists
of Florida Coleoptera.
It reaches a length of
one and a fifth inches
and is bright green, ex-
cept the margins of the
elytra, which are tinged
with coppery red. It

ranges over almost the entire United States, and is
carnivorous in habit; being usually found running
about in search of some caterpillar or other insect or
worm which will furnish it a meal.

From the yellow flowers of a senecio I take a half-
dozen specimens of a tri-colored hemipteron, Me-
lanocoryphus ~bicrucis Say. It is a common southern
"bug," seven-twentieths of an inch in length; the
ground color red; the head, feet, front margin of,
thorax and tips of elytra, black. The inner edges of
the elytra form a yellow cruciate line, whence the
specific name licrucis.

Fig. 43.

Calosoma tcrutator Fab.

WHAT is LIFE? 135

The large green dragonfly, Anax junius Drury, is
very abundant to-day. I pick with the fingers from
the leaves of the saw palmetto a dozen or more.

A shower at this season, such as we had this morn-
ing, brings out the insects and other forms of life
which inhabit a sandy region like this. An hour after
its close life is everywhere. One can scarcely lift a
chip from the ground, a piece of bark from a fallen
tree, or gaze upon a leaf or flower without finding
some form of worm, mollusk, insect, or higher form
of life. As I write, a small black Lampyrid beetle,
Polemius sp. ?, alights upon my hand and crawls to
and fro across its surface. I put him in a bottle, and
within a minute or two the life that was within him
yields to the fumes of the deadly cyanide, and ceases
forever. What is that life ? Long has mortal man,
the highest of all living things, studied and pondered
o'er this question, yet it remains unanswered. If
ever answered, it will be by the science of chemistry,
which asserts that that which we call "life/7 be it in
plant or be it in animal, is but the manifestation of
the workings of that king of natural forces, cheimsm ;
that when the elements in the living laboratories, the
cells of the organism, cease for an instant to combine,
the nascent power which they possessed at the begin-
ning of that instant is gone forever — affinity ends —
what we call "death77 ensues, and the elements go back
once more to Mother Earth, to be used again by some
succeeding organism. And yet, some of the forms

136 A NATURE WOOING.

which possess this life are so minute that it seems a
miracle how the organs necessary to perpetuate the
chemical changes can exist within the bodies of the be-
ings which possess them. Yet live they do, use oxy-
gen, assimilate food, grow, reproduce their kind, and
perform all other duties necessary to their existence,
e'en though made up of but a single cell.

April 2, 1899. — The morning fair; the wind high;
the temperature 60° at 7 : 30 o'clock. I betook myself
to an orange grove two miles west of Ormond, in
order to see, if possible, orange blossoms before I
leave Florida. On the way I took from the flowers
of a Senecio a number of specimens of a pretty tri^
colored, slender-bodied beetle, Languria marginipen-
nis Schwz. It is three-tenths of an inch in length;
red, blue and black in color ; the black being confined
to the head, part of the legs and a spot on the thorax ;
and the blue to the elytra. It was described from
Tampa and Enterprise in 1878, and is not known to
occur north of this state.

At the orange grove I found but a single blossom.
I got the scent of it, but left it as a reward to the
owner for his labor and expense in saying the tree
from the ravages of the frost. This is the only grove
in an area of one hundred square miles which, escap-
ing the rigors of the winter, bears green leaves and an
occasional blossom. The owner, warned by the
weather bureau twelve hours in advance, placed over
each tree a tent, within which he kept burning a coal-

THE STRUCTURE OF A "SHACK.'

137

oil lamp. Water was sprayed over the outside of each
tent and allowed to freeze. It cost $3.50 each to save
the one hundred and twenty-five trees of the grove.
Another season it will cost but little, as the tents and
oil stoves will be on hand. Verily, in this part of
Florida an orange grove is a costly plaything.

From the leaves of one of the trees in this grove
I took two specimens of that large, dark brown heter-
opterous insect, Metapodius fem-
oratus Fab. It is one of the
largest of our native true bugs,
the length being a little more
than an inch. Its noteworthv
characters are a small projecting
spine between the antennae; the
enlargement of the hind tibiae,
by a dilated and compressed
plate, and numerous small ele-
vated dots or tubercles on the
upper* surface of the thorax.
It is said to be a rather frequent insect in the Gulf
states.

On my way home I stopped for a time in a deserted
orange grove, near the old Spanish chimneys. Here
I examined carefully the structure of a "shack" — one
of the common temporary shelters erected by the na-
tives or occasionally by hunters and tourists. It con-
sists of a framework of poles nailed to posts driven
into the ground, or to convenient trees, and having

Fig. 44.

Metapodius femoratus Fab.
(Three-fourths natural iize.)

138 A NATURE WOOING.

the roof and sides covered with several layers of pal-
metto leaves, which are in turn nailed to the poles, so
that their blades overlap, thus furnishing a perfectly
waterproof shelter. The roof is slanting. There is
to this one a doorway, but no door and no window,
though both of these could be readily inserted. A
man can build one of these shacks in a substantial
manner in less than two days. It will last several
years, and with a door and window in place, and a
stove within, he can keep comfortable during the
coldest Florida winter.

'Tis a cheap and easily constructed shelter, sufficient
in every way for a person in good health. With such
a shack by the side of some stream or lake, with a
gun, fishing tackle, collecting outfit and some good
books to while away an occasional hour, methinks a
naturalist could spend the winter in Florida, and live
a free, enjoyable and inexpensive life.

April 3, 1899. — To the Bennett clearing, near the
old chimneys, I go again, in search of some form of
animal life unknown to me. Nor is my search in
vain, for I find a locust new to my collection, Paroxya
atlantica Scudd., a slender-bodied, wood brown spe-
cies ; known from the other members of the genus by
the short antennae of the male. It occurs only along
the Atlantic coast of Georgia and Florida. The males
are active leapers, jumping from tuft to tuft of grass
and dodging around the steins. The females are
much larger and more clumsy, and therefore seldom

CHAMELEONS AND "DOODLE-BVGS." 139

leap to escape capture, but attempt to hide by burrow-
ing deep down between the stems.

Chamseleons are more frequent in this clearing
than elsewhere hereabouts. Three were taken from
the leaves of a young palmetto, one of which was just
moulting. This handsome lizard is distributed from
the Rio Grande to North Carolina. It is also com-
mon in the Bahama Islands and Cuba, where it
reaches a larger size than in the United States. Its
principal food is insects, especially flies and spiders.
The harder shelled beetles and locusts it does not
seem to fancy. Mrs. L. M. Wallace, a lady living
near Orinond, who is a close observer, tells me that
she has seen the chamseleon, on several occasions, fish
for "doodle-bugs" or the young of the ant-lion, Myr-
meleon rusiicus Hag., with its tail. As is well known,
these insects construct for themselves a cone-shaped

Fig. 45— Pit-fall of an Ant Lion.

(After Oomntock.)

pit in the sand or humus of an old log, at the bottom
of which they hide, and wait for some unwary insect
to tumble into the pit, when they quickly seize and
devour it. Mrs. Wallace states that the chamseleon

140 A NATURE WOOING.

approaches cautiously the pit, and, sticking in the end
of its tail, wiggles it gently to and fro. The "doodle-
bug," thinking it an insect, seizes the end of the tail
in its large jaws and is immediately whisked out and
swallowed by the ingenious saurian fisherman.

Since the chamseleon was just issuing in numbers
from its winter abiding places about the time I left
Florida, I was able to see but little of its daily life.
As it is known to many northern people through
specimens brought from the south as curiosities, or to
be senselessly worn as ornaments by persons who wish
to call attention to themselves, and know no better
way than to wear a live lizard on their bosom or cra-
vat; I incorporate the following extracts concerning
its habits. Holbrook, that charming writer on the
characters and habits of our reptiles, says of it:
"The green lizard, Anolis -carolinensis Cuv., is a bold
and daring animal, haunting outhouses and garden
fences; and in new settlements it even enters the
houses, walking over the tables and other articles of
furniture in search of flies. It is very active, climb-
ing trees with great rapidity, and leaping with ease
from branch to branch or from tree to tree, securing
itself even on the leaves, by means of the oval disks
of the fingers and toes, which enable it also to walk
easily on glass, and on the sides and ceilings of rooms.
It feeds on insects, and destroys great numbers, seiz-
ing them suddenly, and devouring them, unrestrained
even by the presence of man. In general they hiber-

HABITS OF THE CHAMELEON. 141

nate later than other animals of the same class,
their favorite retreats being gardens and old build-
ings; they often retire to greenhouses or conserva-
tories, where they may be frequently seen active,
even in winter, but never of that rich yellow-green
as in the summer season. In the spring season they
are extremely quarrelsome; two males seldom meet
without a furious battle, which frequently results in
the loss of part of the tail, or some other injury, to
one or both of the combatants. Before the contest,
the animal usually remains stationary for a moment,
elevates and depresses his head several times, inflates
his gular sac, which now becomes of a bright vermil-
ion, and then suddenly springs at his enemy. After
the first heats of spring have passed, they become
less quarrelsome, and many are seen quietly living
together in the same neighborhood; they retain at
all times the habit of inflating the sac, even when
quietly basking in the sun, and at those times the
coloring of the animal has the liquid brilliancy of the
emerald."*

Dr. R. W. Shuf eldt has also given a most entertain-
ing account of the habits of this handsome lizard, the
closing paragraph of which I quote: "The season
approaches when Florida, recovering from the tempo-
rary shock caused by her mock winter, again puts
forth the natural jewels of her animal and vegetable
kingdoms, again presents us with fresh flowers and

*N.Am.Herp.,I,1836, p.69.

142 A NATURE WOOINQ.

fresh fields, after so short a relapse. Birds once more
stream northward, mammals throw off their semi-
torpidity and resume their usual avocations. In the
overflown bayous, rendered almost unendurable by
an atmosphere charged with all the aromatic odors
of a budding southern spring, we at this time, too,
see the gaudy representatives of the reptilian world
gradually make their several appearances. Frogs
croak, Hylas peep, and in some sunny nook the dead-
ly moccasin warms his snuff-brown coils, alone,
dreaded and shunned. All rejoice that this happy

Fig. 46—Cham8eleon.

season once more opens, and the feeble grasp of the
winter god is withdrawn. Where is Anolis now?
We have not far to go, indeed, to find our bi-colored
masquerader; see the emerald-clad scamp as he eyes
you from the brawny limb of the pecan, under which

COURTING OF THE CHAMELEON. 143

you stand. But what is he up to? You quietly
watch him, and his employment seems to be of such
a nature that he soon completely ignores you, and
proceeds with it at all risks, and at all costs. The
mystery is soon solved, and we can readily appreciate
this agitation, this bowing and strutting, and all man-
ner of quaint motions, as if the very last drop of his
quaint lacertilian blood was on fire — for coyishly,
and in all due deference, reclines before his lordship,
his chosen mate, exerting all her chamseleonic pow-
ers to hide her blushes by vain endeavors to match the
colored pattern of her couch, with all the bronzes and
browns at her command. He can withstand her
charms no longer, and for the moment, laying aside
all dignity, and the object of his affections not un-
willingly submitting, in the next instant finds herself
in the passionate embraces of her lord, who, to make
sure that he has actually won his coveted prize, winds
about her lithe form, perhaps in some mystic love-
knot, his entire caudal extremity, and blinds her eyes,
first on one side and then on the other, by the ex-
tension of the flaming ornament at his throat."*

The owner of the clearing, who is plowing potatoes
as I catch bugs and lizards, informs me that an alli-
gator, four feet in length, was killed by the train on
yesterday. It had crawled upon the trestle across
Thompson's Creek, a half mile northwest from Or-

*American Naturalist, XVII, 1883, p. 925.

144 A NATURE WOOING.

mond, to bask in the sun, and failed to get off in time
to avoid the locomotive.

He also states that a friend of his who is a hunter
in the Everglades of South Florida, made $110 in
one day in 1897 by shooting egrets on their nests in
order to secure the skins and plumes for millinery
purposes. It was a wanton slaughter of innocent
birds to satisfy the vanity of woman. Two species
of egrets, or white herons, were, ten years ago, very
common during the migratory seasons in Indiana.
Now, but one or two are noted each season. The
murderous work done for hire by these southern pot-
hunters is alone responsible for their scarcity; yet
back of it all is the demand of fashion, the vanity of
the fairer sex of that higher animal — man.

April 4, 1899. — This morning the sun is hidden
behind a veil of clouds, which occasionally yield up a
few drops of their component moisture. The temper-
ature is mild — about 60°. I make my way out past
Soudan, that portion of Ormond devoted to "Darkest
Africa/7 to the hammocks beyond. Just above the
darkey cabins I step upon a snake and involuntarily
jump back. It is a long, slender, black reptile, which,
after crawling slowly a few paces, stops and gazes up
at me. As I approach cautiously, it starts off more
rapidly and I bring one foot down upon its body; a
little too far back, however, to prevent its striking
savagely at my insect net which I thrust between it
and my knee. I soon get a firm hold on it just back

SOME FLORIDA SNAKES. 145

of the head and hold it up as it squirms and writhes,
for a closer view. It is evidently a slender form of
the common, harmless black snake, Bascanion con-
strictor L. I wish to compare it more critically with
northern forms, and so place it in the only receptacle
which I have at hand, a tin box, which it fills to the
brim. Reptiles, especially snakes, have been so
scarce heretofore that I have quit carrying the strong
muslin bag in which I usually place such forms.
Thinking it may, by writhing, force open the lid of
the box, I search my pockets for a string, but that,
too, is lacking, so I retrace my steps to the nearest
cabin in quest of one. Three negro men are in the
yard. One, old, fleshy and voluble of speech, imme-
diately I make my desire known, begins to talk of
snakes. He affirms that the one with red and black
rings, a species of Elaps which I have been told is
frequent about here, has a stinger in the end of its
tail which it uses as a defensive organ. I do not open-
ly deny his statement, but he is certainty mistaken.
He and his companions seem to know but four or
five species of snakes, viz., the Elaps mentioned, the
striped garter snake, the black snake which I show
them, the spreading viper or "spotted addah" and the
rattlesnake. According to their belief the bite of all
of these is "sho' nuif death/7 except that of the black
and garter snakes. In reality, the bite of but one,
the diamond rattlesnake, is known to be venomous,
though that of the Elaps is so reputed. I finally

10

146 A NATURE WOOING.

obtain a piece of cotton string to tie my box and then
resume my outing.

A pack of pickaninnies followed after me and
watched me searching for insects. I showed them
the snake and told them I would pay them for such
snakes as I do not have. The youngest of them
glanced askance at me and asked : "Mistah, what duz
you-all want 'em foh ?" "To make soup/7 I replied.
He turned to his older companions in open-eyed
amazement. He was speechless even. Snake soup
was to him an unthought-of , unheard-of delicacy. He
may to-night dream of a pot of hissing serpents, rais-
ing their heads at intervals above the top, glaring at
him and darting forth their tongues, while their bod-
ies and tails writhe and sizzle in the water beneath.

A happy-go-lucky race, these Florida negroes;
content with shelter crude, with corn pone and sirup,
with a few clothes to cover their nakedness. Their
children are legion, the ties of marriage being but
loosely observed. For the most part illiterate, one
day, to them, is as another. "Sufficient unto the day
is the evil thereof," would doubtless be their motto
did they know its meaning. Free from ambition,
knowing little of the great world beyond and caring
less, they shuffle through life content with their lot ;
dwelling here 'neath the sunny skies and balmy airs
in a land which seemingly was formed for such as
they.

A HANDSOME THISTLE. 147

By the side of the railway I find a second specimen
of the thistle, Carduus horridulus Pursh. It belies
its name, for it is a most handsome plant. Its stem,
has, in the past, been cut off about two feet above
the ground. From just below the cut a dozen or more
flower stalks have grown upward for eighteen inches
in umbel-like fashion. Each of these stalks bears a
single large flower or bud. The flowers are two
inches or more across when fully expanded. Each is
sub-tended by a double circle of long, slender bracts,
which curve upward and form an urn-like involucre
in which the blossom rests. These bracts bear a dou-
ble row of purple spines along their margins and each
is tipped with a similarly colored long and slender
spine. The uppermost leaves are opposite, bract-like,
and also armed on the margins with handsome purple
spines. The flower itself is a charming rose purple in
hue. 'Tis handsome enough to grace a queen's table,
yet it blooms here in the gutter by the railway, un-
noticed and unknown. Why should not such a plant
be tended in a hothouse, given a high sounding name,
and sold for a fabulous sum? Were it not for its
prickly armor such might be its fortune.

On one of its blossoms I find a single specimen of
a pretty Chrysomelid beetle, Lema ephippiata Lac.,
one-third of an inch in length, red except the elytra,
which are steel blue; and the antennae and tibiae,,
which are dark brown. The blossoms also bear two
specimens of a grayish-brown hemipteron, Margus

148 A NATURE WOOING.

inornatus Stal, which has not before been recorded
north of Mexico.

April 5, 1899. — Once more, and for the last time
this season, if not forever, I sit on the Tomoka's bank.
Its waters are still as dark, as deep, as slow flowing as
ever. Their surface is not, however, so placid as
when I saw it last, but is broken by great waves, en-
gendered by the strong northeast wind, which, for six-
teen hours, has been blowing, raging, seething. A
great vacuum has been formed somewhere to the
southwest. Toward it the air from the northeast has
rushed with a mighty roar, a part of the time at the
rate of sixty miles an hour. All night the pines bent
before its blast. All night they creaked and groaned.
The dwelling in which I essayed to sleep at times
rocked like a cradle. Windows rattled incessantly;
shutters blew to and fro, yet the morning broke with
the sun smiling as ever at the work he had wrought —
for his unequal heating had caused the vacuum. I
have seen but few forms of animal life on my way
hither this morning. They have taken shelter, as I do
now, from the fury of the blasts.

A great pileated woodpecker hopped backward a
foot or two down a dead pine, paused and listened,
then repeated the process until he reached the
ground. Upward he starts on the opposite side of the
tree. Peering around the side he espies me, and long
and earnestly he gazes. Finally flapping his wings, he
is away to another snag a hundred yards distant. O,

THE PILEATED WOODPECKER. 149

king of birds hereabouts, thou needst have no fear on
my account ! I am not thine enemy, only thy rival.
Beneath the bark and rotten wood of trees I, too,
seek insects. Thou lookest principally after the lar-
val forms, I after the mature. Thou seekest them
for sustenance, I for pastime. If thou wert only
willing, together we might work, in peace and har-
mony, on the same snag at the same time. I could
watch the movements of thy powerful bill as it sank
deep into the decaying wood, and could in turn pull
off with my implement of search, my good right arm,
great pieces of the loose bark and unfold to thy gaze
many a white ant, many a fat grub. But thou wiliest
otherwise and lookest upon me as an enemy. Far be
it from my mind to do thee harm. I only wish thee
success in finding many a grub for thy morning's
meal, even if by so doing thou shalt lessen the num-
ber of mature beetles which will, perchance, fall to
my share in future days.

I note where an oak has thrust its tap root through
a layer of the coquina rock, three feet in thickness.
The root, now decayed, is eight inches in diameter.
Perchance a worm hole first gave lodgement to the
tiny rootlet of the sprouting acorn.

The first mature^ males of the slender-bodied, gray-
ish-brown locust, Rhadinotatum brevipenne Thos.,
were seen on March 22nd. To-day the mature females
are abundant. It is the most curious Orthopteran
found here at this season. The body is very slender

150 A NATURE WOOING.

and compressed ; that of the males one and a quarter
inches in length; of the females nearly two inches.
The head is long and projects upward in the form of
a pyramid, the face being extremely sloping. The
antennae are flat and broad at base and taper
towards the apex. The tegmina, or outer wings, are
very short and narrow, their maximum length being
but about one-fifth of an inch. This locust has been
recorded only from one or two points in Florida.
Here it is common on the clumps of wire grass, in
sandy places along the edges of woodland paths and
old fields. Its short wings prevent it from flying, and
as it is but a poor leaper, it is readily taken with the
fingers. It relies upon protective mimicry as its chief
mode of defense; hence its organs of locomotion,
wings and legs, have developed but little, the former
being mere pads, the latter very slender and used
mainly for walking and for clasping the stems of
grass. The brown, linear body, when extended
lengthwise along a dead grass stem is scarcely notice-
able, so closely does its hue correspond to that of the
grass. The insect remains motionless until about to
be seized, when it sometimes gives a short leap to one
side.

The number of colonies of the young of the lubber
grasshopper, Dictyophorus reticulaius Thunb., has
greatly increased during the past week, and some of
the earlier ones hatched are past the third moult.
Usually fifty to seventy-five of the young are on a

THE LUBBER GRASSHOPPER. 151

single weed or bunch of grass, whose leaves they
wholly devour. They are a greenish black in color
with a narrow stripe along the back of orange or
blood red. The sides of head and hind edge of thorax
are also of the brighter color. One colony, noted
near the Tomoka cabin, was an uniform reddish
brown instead of black and red. It may have been
composed of the young of an allied species, D. marci
Serv. The young of the lubber locust are wholly

Fig. 47— Lubber Grasshopper.

DictyopAortw reticvlatus Thnnb.

(Mature female.)

wingless and very clumsy, crawling feebly over the
ground when knocked off the plant to which they are
clinging. They are said to have no known natural
enemies, being so nauseating that even chickens re-
ject them as food. They occur throughout the Gulf
States and as far north as Chattanooga, Tennessee,
and occasionally do much damage by feeding upon
the leaves of vegetables and orange trees.

152 A NATURE WOOING.

When mature they reach a length of nearly three
inches and are correspondingly robust. They are
then of a yellow or orange color, barred and spotted
with black. The outer wings cover little more than
half the abdomen and are quite showy, being yellow-
ish spotted with black above, while the sides are rose
pink. They become full grown in May.

On the way home I observed a dragonfly, Pachy-
diplax longipennis Burm., fluttering on the ground.
Investigation showed that a robber fly, Proctacanthus
philadelpliicus Macq., had seized it just back of the
head and was holding on with a death-like grip, its
beak or tongue being deeply imbedded in the front
of the thorax of the dragonfly. The captor was less
than one-fourth the size of its victim, and was prob-
ably sucking the latter's blood on the spot, as it was
plainly too large to be carried away.

Where the railway runs between two marshes I
found between its rails on my way homeward several
dead specimens of Bauer's box turtle, Kinosternon
baurii Garm. They had evidently attempted to cross
the railway from one marsh to another and had got-
ten between the rails, but could not get over them.
They did not appear to have been injured by the
trains, and had probably died from lack of water.

This is the most northern point from which this
turtle has been recorded. It differs from K. penn-
sylvanicum Grmelin, also found here and ranging
north to northwestern Indiana, by the greater develop-

OLD OCEANS WATERS. 153

ment of the plates of the plastron, and by the pres-
ence of two yellow lines on each side of the head and
three pale, lengthwise bands on the carapace. It can
close its shell more completely, than can its close ally,
the better known mud turtle. A live specimen of K*
liaurii, taken later, measured four inches in length by
nearly three in breadth.

April 6, 1899. — To-day I make my last trip along
the sea beach. Old ocean is on a rampage after the
wind storm of yesterday. The surging waves strike
the sands far out, then tumble and toss in a mad race
for the shore. ]STo human agency can bar their action
—their onward coming. It is a power beyond control
of man which brings them on. It is hard to realize
that three-fourths of the surface of the earth is cov-
ered with this surging, rolling, ever-moving mass of
waters. Great monsters are begotten, are born, live,
move and die within their midst, possibly without
ever catching a sight of land. They are the home of
myriads of forms of life, untold myriads of individ-
uals. Thousands of humans each year find a final
resting place within their depths.

As the waves strike the edge of the shore they lose
their turbulency, roll for a distance on the sands, then
die content. 'Tis like the mad race of men for some
goal where they expect to find honor, wealth and hap-
piness. They toil, they struggle, they surge, they
beat over and around one another. Some of them
finally reach what they are striving after and often-

154 A NATURE WOOING.

times find it worthless — lacking honor, and especially
lacking happiness. "We are never happy; we only
know that we were so once."

As I come out of the narrow path, which leads
through the mazes of saw palmetto at the point where
I crossed the peninsula, and get my first glimpse of
the ocean, I see an osprey dive down, struggle in the
water an instant, then rise triumphantly upward with
a large fish in his talons. Far inland he flies, bearing
his prey to his mate on her nest, or perhaps to some
eyrie on tall dead tree where he can devour it in soli-
tude unmolested by eagle or other enemy.

Over the mainland I note the "Bird of Freedom,"
a magnificent bald eagle, slowly soaring. The sun-
light glints from his white head and tail. He has
evidently been on the watch for the
fish hawk, but has missed him. A
robber baron he, who gets his living
mainly by preying upon his weaker
brethren, seldom by honest bird labor.
The pathway has, in places, been cut
through the sand ridges of the penin-
sula and a board walk put down. Be-
neath one of the loose boards of this

subsulcatus Sajr.

walk I find a small whip scorpion or
vinegerone, its jointed telson turned up over its back.
Two feet from it are four specimens of a medium
sized carabid beetle, Pasimachus subsulcatus Say.
It is shining black and four-fifths of an inch in

SOME FLORIDA BUTTERFLIES. 155

length. These beetles and the whip scorpion are the
only rewards of a half hour's search along this path-
way, the sand yielding little nourishment to attract
living forms.

In the garden and orchard adjoining an old dwell-
ing on the river side of the peninsula butterflies are
plentiful. Among them are two old friends whom

Fig. 49— The Painted Beauty.

(After Harris.)
(The under side of wing ia shown on the right.)

I first met fifteen years ago in Indiana, viz., the
painted beauty, Pyrameis hunter a Fab., which ranges
from Nova Scotia to Mexico; and the silver-spotted
skipper, Eudamus tityrus Fab., also a form of ex-
tended range. The latter are flitting in numbers
about the showy purple blossoms of the large flower-
ing verbena, V. auhletia. Here also I take a single
specimen of Pamphila maculata Edw., a dark brown
skipper, with wing expanse of one and a half inches,
whose range is confined to the Gulf states. Several

156

A NATURE WOOING.

Fig. 50— The Silver Spot.

Ktidamus tityrus Fab.
(The under side of wing is shown on the left.)

examples of the "little metal mark/7 Calephelis
ccenius L., the smallest butterfly I have seen in Flor-
ida, are noted in this garden, though but one is cap-
tured. It expands
but three-quarters
of an inch. The
upper surface of
the wings is of a
rust red hue,
crossed by four or
five narrow, wavy
black lines. The
under side is yel-
low fulvous, with
numerous dark

metallic lines and spots. It, also, is confined to the
southern states, and frequents the wild flowers which
are in blossom from April to July.

The little peeper or cricket frog, Acris gryllus Le-
Conte, is an abundant resident along the borders of
the Halifax and in the weedy and marshy inlets
which are connected with
it. The skin is smoother
and the bars on the hind
femora are more distinct
than in the northern form,
A. crepitans of Baird. The
habits of A. gryllus are the

, i f A Fig. 51— Southern Cricket Frog.

same as those of A. crep- Acris grj/Uus Lec.

THE SOUTHERN CRICKET FROG. 157

itans in the north, which have been described by Dr.
O. P. Hay as follows :

"The cricket frog is not thoroughly aquatic, but
delights to spend its time amid the vegetation about
the border of the water. When frightened it will
leap into the water, but it often appears to become
alarmed at its rashness and hastens to reach the land
again. When followed up, however, it will go to the
bottom and seek to conceal itself for a while. Though
belonging to the 'tree frogs/ it never ascends trees,
and probably climbs only the shorter grasses and
water plants. It is a cheerful little creature, and on
warm days may constantly be heard executing its
noisy song. This resembles closely the striking to-
gether rapidly of two pebbles, and often, when their
singing has been interrupted by the passer-by, it may
be started again by clicking two stones sharply to-
gether."*

Holbrook has written of the southern form, A.
gryllus: "This is a merry little frog, constantly
chirping like a cricket, even in confinement; it fre-
quents the borders of stagnant pools, and is often
found on the leaves of aquatic plants, and rarely on
the branches of such low shrubs as overhang or dip
in the water. It feeds on various kinds of insects,
and makes immense leaps to secure its prey, or to
escape its pursuers. It can easily be domesticated,
and takes its food readily from the hand ; I have kept

* Batrachians and Reptiles of Indiana, 1891, p. 462.

158 A NATURE WOOING.

several for months in a glass globe on a few sprigs
of purslain, Portulaca oleracea L. Their chirp, at
times, was incessant, and sprinkling them with water
never failed to render them more lively and noisy."*

April 7, 1899. — This morning, 'neath cloudy,
threatening skies, I made my way to the clearing near
the old chimneys. No sooner had I arrived there
than the threatened deluge began. It was a veritable
Florida downpour, which lasted three hours. I took
shelter in the shack of palmetto leaves which I have
before mentioned and found it perfectly water-proof.
The two natives who had been working in the clear-
ing were sheltered with me and we talked of many
of the animals and birds which inhabit this region.

They affirmed that the ivory-billed woodpecker,,
Campephilus principals L., is still rather common
in the heavy timbered hammocks, several miles back
from the railway; also that the Carolina paroquet,
Conurus carolimnsis L., was common about Ormond
until 1887, and that it is still abundant in the ever-
glades and the more primitive portions of southern
Florida. Both these birds were once common in In-
diana, but long since disappeared from that State,
retreating before the advancing civilization of the
white man to the deepest recesses of these southern
forests.

The black or brown bear, Ursus americanus
Pallas, is still occasionally seen. Seven or eight were

* North American Herpetology, III, 1838, 76.

BEARS AND ALLIGATORS. 159

killed within a half dozen miles of Ormond during
the past winter. I myself have seen the tracks of one
crossing the roadway, and have noted where another
has clawed open the nest of a ground bee in search
of honey. Bennett, one of the natives, says that the
bears kill the hogs in the winter time, when other
food is scarce, and drive them out of the hammocks.

The Virginia deer, Qariacus virginianus Bodd.,
are frequent, and many are killed in season. Wild
turkeys are becoming scarce near the settlements and
good ones bring $1.00 to $1.25 in the market. Both
otter and mink are rather common along Thompson's
creek and the Toinoka. Raccoons are also plentiful.
However, the skins of these animals bring much less
than in the northern states, where the fur on them is
far better in quality.

The taking of alligator skins at one time furnished
quite a revenue to the natives of this portion of Flor-
ida. Their numbers have diminished greatly in re-
cent years, and the former "gator hunter" now has to
look to other sources for most of his income. The
greater number of those now killed are taken in sum-
mer in the swamps and wet hammocks after the water
has receded. Only the skin of the lower or under por-
tion of the body is saved. This is salted, rolled up and
put into a barrel. As soon as the barrel is full it is
taken to some railway station or steamer landing for
shipment. The skins bring, on an average, but about
$1.00 each.

160 A NATURE WOOING.

The eggs of the alligator are laid in large conical
nests composed of mud, twigs and leaves. They hatch
in May or June, and the young, when a year old, are
about a foot in length. Bartram, who spent many
months in this state at a time when these saurians
were present by thousands, and before their habits
had become changed by the presence of a horde of
sportsmen intent upon their destruction, wrote of
them as follows: "On turning a point or projection
of the river bank, at once I beheld a great number of
hillocks or small pyramids, resembling hay-cocks,
ranged like an encampment along the banks. They
stood fifteen or twenty yards distant from the water,
on a high marsh, about four feet perpendicular above
the water. I knew them to be the nests of the alli-
gator, having had a description of them before; and
now expected a furious and general attack, as I saw
several large alligators swimming abreast of these
buildings. These nests being so great a curiosity to
me, I was determined at all events immediately to
land and examine them. Accordingly, I ran my bark
on shore at one of their landing places, which was a
sort of nick or little dock, from which ascended a
sloping path or road up to the edge of the meadow,
where their nests were ; most of them were deserted,
and the great thick, whitish egg-shells lay broken and
scattered upon the ground round about them.

"The nests or hillocks are of the form of an obtuse
cone, four feet high and four or five feet in diameter

NESTS OF THE ALLIGATOR. 161

at their bases ; they are constructed with mud, grass
and herbage. At first they lay a floor of this kind
of tempered mortar on the ground, upon which they
deposit a layer of eggs, and upon this a stratum of
mortar, seven or eight inches in thickness, and then
another layer of eggs, and in this manner one stratum
upon another, nearly to the top. I believe they com-
monly lay from one to two hundred eggs in a nest;
these are hatched, I suppose, by the heat of the sun ;
and perhaps the vegetable substances mixed with the
earth, being acted upon by the sun, may cause a small
degree of fermentation, and so increase the heat in
those hillocks. The ground for several acres about
these nests showed evident marks of a continual resort
of alligators ; the grass was everywhere beaten down,
hardly a blade or straw was left standing; whereas
all about, at a distance, it was five or six feet high,
and as thick as it could grow together.

aThe female, as I imagine, carefully watches her
own nest of eggs until they are all hatched, or per-
haps while she is attending to her own brood she
takes under her care and protection as many as she
can get at one time, either from her own particular
nest or others ; but certain it is, that the young are not
left to shift for themselves, for I have had frequent
opportunities of seeing the female alligator leading
about the shores her train of young ones, just as a
hen does her brood of chickens ; and she is equally as-
siduous and courageous in defending the young,

11

162 A NATURE WOOIKO.

which are under her care, and providing for their
subsisten.ce, and when she is basking upon the warm
banks with her brood around her you may hear the
young ones continually whining and barking, like
younp' puppies. I believe but few of a brood live to
the years of full growth and magnitude, as the old
feed on the young as long as they can make prey of
them.

"The alligator when full grown is a very large and
terrible creature and of prodigious strength, activity
and swiftness in the water? I have seen them twenty
feet in length, and some are supposed to be twenty-
two or twenty-three feet. Their body is as large as
that of a horse ; their shape exactly resembles that of
a lizard, except their tail, which is flat or cuneiform,
being compressed on each side and gradually diminish-
ing from the abdomen to the extremity, which, with
the whole body, is covered with horny plates or
squammse, impenetrable when on the body of the live
animal, even to a rifle-ball, except about their head
and just behind their forelegs or arms, where it is said
they are only vulnerable. The head of a full-grown
one is about three feet, and the mouth opens nearly
the same length; their eyes are small in proportion
and seem sunk deep in the head, by means of the
prominency of the brows; the nostrils are large, in-
flated and prominent on the top, so that the head in
the water resembles, at a distance, a great chunk of
wood floating about. Only the upper jaw moves,

NOISES MADE BY ALLIGATORS. 163

which they raise almost perpendicular, so as to form
a right angle with the lower one. In the fore part of
the upper jaw, on each side, just under the nostrils,
are two very large, thick, strong teeth or tusks, not
very sharp, but rather the shape of a cone; these are
as white as the finest polished ivory, and are not cov-
ered by any skin or lips, and always in sight, which
gives the creature a frightful appearance. In the
lower jaw are holes opposite to these teeth, to re-
ceive them. When they clap their jaws together it
causes a surprising noise, like that which is made by
forcing a heavy plank with violence upon the ground,
and may be heard at a great distance.

"But what is more surprising to a stranger is the in-
credible loud and terrifying roar which they are
capable of making, especially in the spring season,
their breeding time. It most resembles very heavy
distant thunder, not only shaking the air and waters,
but causing the earth to tremble ; and when hundreds
and thousands are roaring at the same time, you can
scarcely be persuaded but that the whole globe is vio-
lently and dangerously agitated."*

The hogs belonging to the natives of this portion of
Florida are marked and then allowed to run wild.
They feed on pine nuts and other mast ; on roots and
on many forms of animal life, as water-dogs, mud
eels, mollusks, etc., found about the wet hammocks.
All cultivated land is, therefore, of necessity, fenced.

* Travels in N. America, 1793, pp. 124 et. seq.

164 A NATURE WOOING.

Whenever "pork hungry/7 as Bennett put it, the hogs
are rounded up with dogs and killed.

April 8j 1899. — This morn I hired a darkey and
spent the day excavating in the shell mound, taking
measurements, etc. This mound is but one of many
which are scattered here and there over the entire
Floridian peninsula. For the most part they are
along the borders of the larger inland streams and
lakes, though a number, like the one at Ormond, are
located near the sea. I had no opportunity of explor-
ing any of the inland mounds, though I heard of a
number on my trip up the St. John's River. Prof.
Jeffries Wyman wrote a most interesting account of
these freshwater shell mounds, which was published
in 1875.* In it he states that:

"The shell deposits on the river are entirely differ-
ent as to their characteristics from the mounds of the
sea coast. The last extend around the shores of the
whole peninsula of Florida and in certain places as at
Turtle Mound, Charlotte Harbor and Cedar Keys,
are of gigantic proportions. They are composed ex-
clusively of marine species, mostly of oysters on the
Atlantic, but on the Gulf coast of several species be-
longing to different genera, as Ostrea, Busy con,
S trombus, Fasciolaria, Cardium, etc."f

The above statement does not hold good of this
mound at Ormond,, which is on a brackish or tide-
water river, within one mile of the Atlantic coast.

* Fourth Memoir, Peabody Academy of Science,
t Loc. cit., p. 9.

1

W £
CQ cs

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§ I

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H .S

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§ :

THE ORMOND SHELL MOUND. 165

Here there is a mixture of marine and fresh water
shells, with the former, however, largely predominat-
ing. Oyster shells Jorm but a minute proportion of
the bulk of the mound; fully 90 percent, of the
shells present being those of the small marine bivalve,
Don ax variabilis Say.

The mound at Ormond is about one mile north of
the center of the village. It is in the form of a long,
low ridge extending north and south parallel to the
west bank of the Halifax River. Though its sides
are sloping, its limits are sharply denned, as one can
readily ascertain by digging, as well as by the char-
acter of the vegetation, the latter changing where
the shells wholly cease and the level plain of sand be-
gins. The total length of the mound is 1,136 feet,
or more than one-fifth of a mile. One-third of the
distance from the north end it is 213 feet in width,
and its eastern side reaches to within 50 feet of the
edge of the water in the river. At its middle the
width is 144 feet, and its eastern edge is 120 feet dis-
tant from the water. One-third the distance from the
south end the width is 362 feet, and the eastern slope
extends to within 20 feet of the water. This south-
ern third embraces the main portion of the mound, as
it is here much thicker than elsewhere.

About 50 feet from the south end an excavation
has been made, 128 feet long and 64 feet wide, from
which the shells have been hauled for fifteen or more
years for use in making sidewalks and bicycle paths in

166 A NATURE WOOING.

and about Ormond. One or more darkies have been
carting away the shells almost every day that I have
visited the mound. Their excavations, added to what
I have done myself, have furnished a good oppor-
tunity for studying the materials of which it is com-
posed. At the deepest point of excavation the layers
of coquina shells (the Donax mentioned) alternate
with layers of mold or a mixture of decaying vegeta-
tion and sand; there being six layers of shells vary-
ing from five inches to three feet in thickness, and
five of mold from two to twelve inches in thickness.
Intermingled with all the layers of shells are pieces of
broken pottery, fragments of bones of mammals, tur-
tles and fish ; pieces of charcoal, ashes, etc. The
larger shells, as those of the oyster and round clam,
occur only in the two uppermost shell layers. The
other shells are scattered irregularly through the
mass of Donax. In a number of places many cubic
yards of the Donax were exposed, as clean and un-
broken as though they had been dumped but yes-
terday.

The greatest thickness of the mound, about 125
feet from the south end; was found to be nine feet,
eight inches. A section at this point showed the pres-
ence of the following layers :

SECTION OF ORMOND MOUND. 167

Inches.

1. Soil, rich and black 12

2. Shells, more or less mixed with soil 25

3. Shells, very clean 36

4. Mold 3

5. Shells 5

6. Sand, pure and clean 2

7. Shells 6

8. Mold 4

9. Shells 6

10. Mold 4

11. Shells 14

12. Sand, surface of surrounding plain

Total 116

In places a layer of charcoal, two and a half inches
in thickness, occurs between Nos. 2 and 3 of the above
section. The alternating layers of sand or mold be-
tween the layers of shells indicate that the people who
formed the mound made periodical visits to this local-
ity, their absence being sufficiently prolonged to allow
the decaying vegetation to form the layers of mold
or soil. It is possible, of course, that their rubbish
was dumped on one portion of the mound while an-
other portion formerly used was allowed to accumu-
late a layer of mold above the shells before being
again used as a dumping place. Judging from the
length of time even here necessary to form a con-
tinuous layer of soil or mold an inch in thickness, the
mound must have been a long period, possibly several
centuries, in the course of formation.

1(38 A NATURE WOOINO.

The soil at present overlying the whole mound is a
rich, black, vegetable loam, ranging from eight inches
to one foot in thickness. That outside the limits of
the mound is thin, being but an inch or two in thick-
ness above rthe prevailing whitish sand of the vicinity.
The greater part of the surface of the mound was
probably cleared and cultivated by the Spaniards in
the early part of the eighteenth century. The re-
mains of the mortar and coquina rock of their houses
are found in two or three places on the highest points
of the mound. Cabbage palmettos fifty to sixty feet
high, and great pines two and a half feet in diameter
and eighty to one hundred feet in height, at present
cover its crest and slopes. Live oaks of large size
are also scattered here and there among the pines and
palmettos. One of these, a great spreading giant of
its kind, growing on the eastern slope near the mid-
dle of the mound, is 115 inches in circumference, two
feet above the ground. The size of this tree and the
thickness of the soil on the crest are excellent wit-
nesses as to the many years which have elapsed since
the last bowl of Donax soup was brewed and the
shells dumped on this kitchen-midden by an ancient
people.

Representatives of twenty-eight species of mollusks
were found in the mound.* Of these nineteen are of
marine origin ; eight occur only in fresh water, while

"This includes six species taken by Prof. C. H. Hitchcock in a subse-
quent investigation.

#„,..«

SHELLS OF ORMOND MOUND. 169

one is a land shell. As already noted, fully ninety

per cent, of the shells are of the little triangular

marine bivalve, Donax variabilis Say. This is at

present a very common shell along the

Atlantic coast from Cape Hatteras to

St. Thomas. At low tide it may be

gathered by the bushel from the sand Fig. ^

along the beach opposite Ormond. It

is still much used in making soup, and probably fur-

nished most of the animal food of the people who

formed the mound.

The following is a list of the shells taken from the
mound :*

UNIVALVES.

1. Murex fulvescens Sowerby. One specimen

from near the bottom of the mound. Frag-
ments of others were seen. It is a post-plio-
cene species which is yet somewhat rarely
found along the coasts of Florida and the
West Indies.

2. Fasciolaria gigantea Kiener. Among a collec-

tion of shells taken from the mound by Pro-
fessor Hitchcock and sent to me was a single
specimen of this large univalve. It occurs
quite commonly along the Florida coast.

*For aid in preparing this list I am indebted to Mr. Charles T. Pimp-
son, of the I . S. National Museum, and to Mr. L. E. Daniels, of Laporte
Ind.

170 A NATURE WOOING.

3. Fasciolaria distant Lam. Scarce. Occurs in

the upper half of the mound. Ranges from
Cape Hatteras to Yucatan.

4. Fulgur carica L. Common in the upper half of

the mound. It is at present an abundant spe-
cies in shallow water from Cape Cod to St.
Thomas.

5. Fulgur perversus L. Professor Hitchcock se-

cured several specimens of this left-handed
form. It is a post-pliocene species ranging
from Cape Hatteras to Cuba.

6. Fulgur canaliculata Dillwyn. This species was

represented by several young examples taken
by Professor Hitchcock. It occurs from
Cape Cod to the Gulf of Mexico.

7. Oliva literata Lam. But one specimen was

found. It was near the middle of the mound.
Its present range is from Hatteras to Key
West.

8. Polinices duplicate Say. This marine snail is,

next to the Donax, the most common shell in
the mound ; especially in the upper half. At
present it is abundant along the beach oppo-
site Ormond.

9. Crepidula fornicata Linn. But two specimens

of this "boat-shell" were found. They were
in the uppermost layer of shells. It occurs
along the full length of the Atlantic coast.

SHELLS OF ORMOND MOUND. 171

10. Vivipara georgmna Lea. A few specimens of

this southern fresh-water univalve were scat-
tered through the upper half of the mound.

11. Ampullaria, depressa Say. This is another

fresh-water shell, which is abundant in the
St. John's River and its tributaries. Accord-
ing to Wymans, it forms a large proportion of
the fresh-water shell mounds along that
stream. In fact, he states that it, Paludina,
multilineaia, Say and Unio ~buckleyi Lea, are
the three species which form these mounds.
He then adds: "Either of these species, in-
stead of being promiscuously mingled with
the rest, as is generally the case, may be
found forming considerable deposits by them-
selves, without the admixture of the others,
as if at certain times they had been exclu-
sively used for food."

This is true of the Ampullarias in the
mound at Ormond. They were found in but
three different places, about a peck in each
place, and nowhere else. We can suppose,
therefore, that some visitor, or member of the
party here encamped, returning from an in-
land stream brought an occasional supply of
these fresh-water mollusks with him as a vari-
ation of diet for his dusky brethren. After
serving up the animals as foo<l, the empty
shells were dumped into one place 011 the re-

172 A NATURE WOOING.

fuse heap near their dwelling, there to remain
for centuries, and when uncovered to serve as
a source of speculation for some visiting nat-
uralist.

12. Glandina truncata Gmel. A few specimens of

the shells of this common land snail were
found scattered here and there among the
shell layers of the mound. It is possible that
they found their own way there during the
time of its formation.

13. Planorbis glabratus Say. Several examples of

this fresh-water mollusk were secured by Pro-
fessor Hitchcock. It is quite common in the
ponds about Ormond, and ranges throughout
the southeastern United States.

BIVALVES.

14. Tagelus gibbus Speng. A single valve of this

representative of the razor-clam group was
found in the lower third of the mound. It
ranges from Cape Cod to Trinidad.

15. Donax variabilis Say. This "coquina clam"

forms by far the greater part of the mound.

16. Venus mercenaria Linn. Two or three deposits,

comprising a half bushel or so each, of the
shells of this round clam were found in the
uppermost third.

17. Cardium magnum Born. A few valves, mostly

broken, were found in several of the shell lay-

SHELLS OF ORMOND MOUND. 173

ers of the mound. It is a Pliocene species
which yet occurs along the coast from Vir-
ginia southward.

18. Unio obesm blandingianus Lea. A number of

the valves of this fresh-water form were scat-
tered throughout the mound. The epidermis
had wholly disappeared. It occurs in streams
throughout Florida, and northward to south-
ern Virginia.

19. Unio occultus Lea. A few valves of this Unio

were taken mingled with those of the last
named species. It is known only from Flor-
ida streams.

20. Unio coruscus Gld. Several valves of this Unio

were secured by Professor Hitchcock. It is
known only from the streams of Florida.

21. Unio sp.f One valve of a Unio, distinct from

any of the above, was found by Mr. Simpson
among the specimens submitted to him.

22. Anodonta imbecillis Say. A number of worn

and partly decayed shells of this handsome
fresh-water form were present. According
to a note by Mr. Simpson, it is not at present
known to occur south of North Carolina.

23. Area americana Gray.

24. Area ponderosa Say. Numerous valves of these

two marine bivalves were found in all the lay-
ers of Donax shells. They are now common
along the beach opposite the mound.

174 A NATURE WOOING.

25. Modiola plicatula Lam. This sea "mussel" was

represented by a few broken valves in each
of the Donax layers. It occurs along the
Atlantic coast from Nova Scotia to Georgia.

26. Ostrea virginica Gmel. A number of isolated

deposits of the valves of the common oyster
were found in the upper two layers of the
mound ; but none in any of the lower layers.
This is strange when taken in connection with
the facts that this oyster is common in the
Halifax River, and that, according to the ex-
tract by Wyman, already quoted, the large
mounds along the coast to the south are com-
posed mostly of the shells of oysters.

27. Pecten dislocatus Say. Professor Hitchcock

found a number of valves of this marine f onn
scattered among the layers of Donax. It is at
present abundant from Cape Halt-eras to the
straits of Florida.

28. Anomia simplex Orbig. A few valves were

found in all the layers, but it was more com-
mon in the lower ones. It occurs along the
entire Atlantic coast.

Besides the above named shells, the remains of a
barnacle, Balanus sp. ? occur occasionally in most, if
not all, of the shell layers of the mound.

A number of bones and fragments of bones from
the different layers of the mound were taken home
with me and submitted to Dr. O. P. Hay, of the

BONES OF ORMOND MOUND. 175

American Museum of Natural History. He reports
that these consist of the following:

Virginia deerr Cariacus virginianus Bod. Bones
of skull and limbs.

Dog or small wolf, Canis sp. ? Jaws and teeth of.

Porpoise. Tail vertebrae of.

Great Auk, Plautus impennis L. Humerus of.

Gopher, Xerobates polypJiemus Daudin. Bones of.

Alligator snapping turtle, Macrochelys temminckii
Troost. Bones of.

Sharks, two species. Vertebrae of.

*Bony fish, Chcetodipterus sp.? Interspinal
bones of.

Of these by far the most interesting and unlooked
for is the humerus of the extinct Great Auk, which
was taken at about the middle of the thickest layer of
shells (No. 3 of the section), near the point where
my hand rests in the accompanying plate. This
bird, "which lost the use of its wings and perished off
the earth in consequence," has heretofore been sup-
posed to have limited its range to the North Atlantic
Region. The Great Auk was formerly common on
the coast of Iceland and found in vast numbers off
the coast of Newfoundland, especially at Funk Island.
It was a little larger than a goose, and formed an im-

*Prof. C. H. Hitchcock, in a subsequent excavation in the mound, se-
cured the bones of several other animals, which have been identified by
Dr. Hay as follows : Raccoon, opossum, heron, alligator, gar pike, wolf
fish, angel fish, cat fish, and other fish of the genera Sphyrsena and Prio-
notus.

176

A NATURE WOOING.

portant article of food for the early navigators and
fishermen. Being incapable of flight it was easily
captured on land and was taken in great numbers at
its breeding places. Systematic slaughter of the bird

Fig. 53 — Great Auk.

for its flesh and feathers caused its extermination
about 1840. Previous to my excavations in the Or-
mond mound its remains had been found from New-
foundland southward as far as the coast of Massachu-
setts, but not below that State. The finding of its
bones in this East Florida shell mound was, there-
fore, a remarkable extension of its range.

In the spring of 1902 an account of my discovery
of the Great Auk bone in the Ormond mound was

A GREAT AUK'S BONE.

177

published quite widely in the newspapers, and was
noted by Prof. C. H. Hitchcock, of
Dartmouth College, who was then
visiting Ormond. He immediately be-
gan explorations in the mound and
was fortunate enough to find another
humerus of the bird. This was first
shown to Prof. F. A. Lucas, of the U.
S. National Museum, and was after-
ward turned over to Dr. Hay. These
authorities both agreed that the two
hurneri are undoubtedly those of the
auk and belong to the same side, the
left, therefore representing two dis-
tinct individuals.

In a letter to me, Prof. Hitchcock
states that his excavation
was about thirty feet
southwest of the one in
which I found the auk
bone, and that his bone
came from the layer of
shells at the very base of
the deposit, and was there-
fore beneath eight feet of
shells and mold.

Taking into considera-
tion the fact that both
auk bones were found in (Thec

Fig. 54— Left humerus of the Great

Auk, taken from Shell Mound

at Ormond, in April, 1899.

Natural size.

section shows the flattened charac-
ter of the bone.)

12

178 A NATURE WOOING.

the lower portion of the mound, and were integral
parts of the shell layers which surrounded them,
there is no other conclusion but that they are
the bones of birds which served as a part of
the food of the aborigines who formed the mound*
There may be numerous other remains of the auk
scattered throughout the mound, as only a very small
portion of it has been examined. Moreover, many
bones of the bird may have been hauled out to the
sidewalks of Ormond in the past, as the material is
used for those walks just as it occurs in the mound,
without screening or other process of separating the
shells from the other debris.

Dr. Hay has recently published an account of the
finding of the two bones in the Ormond mound.*
After stating the facts relative to their discovery, and
those concerning the former known distribution of
the bird, he adds: "That the Great Auk was a per-
manent resident in Florida is very doubtful. We can
hardly argue with respect to the shell heaps of Flor-
ida, as Hardy has maintained in the case of the ISTew
England heaps, that they were built up during the
summer, and that hence the bones are those of auks
which were captured at that season. On the other
hand, Ormond is a thousand miles distant in a
straight line from Cape Cod, and eighteen hundred
from Newfoundland; and either of these distances
would be a long trip for a wingless bird to make and

* The Auk, July, 1902, p. 255.

POTTERY OF ORMOND MOUND.

179

repeat in half a year, even though its swimming pow-
ers were very great. We shall, however, probably
yet learn that the Great Auk was a permanent resi-
dent along our coast considerably further south than
Cape Cod. For the further elucidation of this sub-
ject, search ought to be made in shell heaps all along
the coast."

Fragments of pottery occur in all the shell layers
of the Ormond mound. Those in the lower layers
are, for the most part, thicker and cruder in struc-
ture than those of the upper. Their outer surface is
wholly unmarked, and there is no appearance of a
rim or thicker projecting portion at the top. In some
of the pieces the curves are not true and the thick-
ness not uniform. Two or three have holes in them
near the top, pre-
sumably for a
handle or bail for
lifting or sus-
pending above a
fire. This bail
was probably of
bark fiber.

The pieces
taken from the
upper layers of
the mound are
many of them
more or less decorated on the outer surface. These
decorations are, in the main, rough parallel tracings

Fig. 55 — Piece of Pottery taken from Ormond
Shell Mound.

180 A NATURE WOOING.

made with some pointed instrument. In several of
the pieces (Fig. 55) sets of parallel lines are arranged
so that they meet at an angle. In one instance a de-
sign of regular and symmetrical squares, one within
another, is present (Fig 56).

Fig. 56— Piece of Pottery taken from Ormond Shell Mound.

Several of the fragments with traced markings
have a rim much thicker than the sides of the ves-
sel. In the one represented by Fig 55, the rim is
21 mm. thick, while the lower part of the piece is but
10 mm. In another fragment, with the outer surface
undecorated, the rim is 31 mm. thick, and has its
upper surface marked with numerous sets of parallel
lines which meet each other at different angles, while
the thickness of the sides is but 9 mm. In this piece
the rim projects both outwardly and inwardly above
the sides, but the inner projection is much more
marked. It is evidently a part of a large jar rather

POTTERY OF OEMOND MOUND. 181

than a cooking vessel, as its outer side is not snioke
begrimed.

But one or two of the pieces taken have their sur-
face stamped. The markings of these were a series
of straight ridges crossing each other at right angles,
thus forming depressed squares of small size.

The material of which the pottery was composed
was, in most all instances, evidently clay free from
sand or shells. In most cases the outer and inner sur-
face is smooth, except for the markings above men-
tioned, and dense, while the middle portion is much
darker and quite porous. This porosity is due to an
admixture of vegetable fibers which were destroyed
during the process of burning, each fiber leaving in
its place a small pore or canal. In some of the poorly
burned specimens the remains of the fibers are still
present. It seems that in finishing the vessel, after it
had been formed of fibers and clay, the makers cov-
ered the inner and outer surfaces with a thin layer or
"skimming" of clay alone, thus preventing the pres-
ence of the pores on these surfaces. Pieces of two
vessels showed the presence of quite a quantity of
sand mixed with the clay. These were from the lower
portion of the mound.

Mr. Bristol presented me with a piece of a stone
vessel which he had taken from a load of shells hauled
from the mound for a sidewalk in front of his resi-
dence. It is evidently a portion of a large mortar or
bowl, made of a reddish gray steatite or soapstone.

182 A NATURE WOOING.

It is very smooth on the inside, rough and smoke be-
grimed without. Its size is two by four and a half
inches and its thickness about three-quarters of an
inch, or 17 to 19 mm. Other smaller fragments of
the same material were seen in the load of shells by
Mr. B., but were not saved.

The piece given me was submitted to Dr. W. J.
McGee, of the Bureau of American Ethnology at
Washington, who reported on it as follows: "The
fragment of a large steatite pot mentioned in your
note has just come to hand. The vessel was evidently
of considerable size and excellent finish for this ma-
terial. The specimen is of interest as indicating a
wide distribution of steatite pottery. The best known
aboriginal steatite quarries are in the Piedmont re-
gion, in a belt extending from about the Delaware
River southward nearly or quite to the Savannah;
but there is no probability that the material was quar-
ried nearer to Ormond than northwestern Georgia,
while the utensil represented by your specimen may
perhaps have been transported much farther than
this. Ordinarily the steatite pots are elliptical or of
a broad boat-shape, with projecting handles (some-
times carved into rude effigies) at either end; your
specimen may represent the side of such a pot, though
its curvature suggests that it may be from a specimen
of more nearly cylindrical cross-section."

Aside from the pieces of pottery, the only artificial
objects found during my investigation of the mound

WHO FORMED THE MOUND? 183

were a piece of a bone awl, two inches in length and
having the surface well polished, and a concave disk
of bone, 37 mm. in diameter, and 5 mm. thick, with a
hole 8 mm. in diameter, drilled through the center.*
From the facts ascertained
and mentioned concerning
this mound, and especially
from the manner in which
the layers of shells, with their
accompaniments of bones,
pieces of pottery, charcoal,
etc., are arranged, there can

be no doubt but that it is Fis- 57— Bone Ornament
. , . taken from Ormond

a kitchen-midden or accu- shell Mound,

mulation of refuse material

made about the dwellings of a people who inhabited
this spot hundreds of years before the white man
landed on the shores of Florida. It is wholly impos-
sible that such an accumulation of shells and such a
combination of objects could have been formed by
natural causes. Of the people who made the mound,
whether Indians, Mound Builders, or what, not even
tradition remaineth. The Red Men who were here
when the Spaniards came have asserted time and
again that this and other shell mounds of the State
were present as they are to-day, as far back as their
ancestry had records. The mound, then, is but a re-

* Prof. Hitchcock reports the finding of some bone points and awls
with ornamental ends, but without eyes.

184 A NATURE WOOING.

minder of the feasts of a forgotten race — a vast pile
of shells, bones and broken utensils which serves as
the sole monument of a people that has vanished from
the earth.

April 9, 1899. — ?Tis Sunday morn once more — the
last Sabbath of my sojourn in the "Cracker State."
A cold wind blows from the north and the mercury
stands at 48° at breakfast time. A stove is a com-
fort at almost mid- April in the "Land of Flowers."

I make my way to Bennett's grove. The tempera-
ture rises by the time I reach there and begin my
search for reptile, mollusk and insect.

I find here my first living examples of the large
pinkish univalve mollusk, Glandina truncata Gmelin.
When living and full grown it is one of the largest
and most handsome of our North American terres-
trial mollusks, reaching at times 100 mm., or four
inches in length. Their dead shells, which I have
found in various places heretofore, have been
bleached by rain and frost. The living ones are pret-
tily tinted with rose color or pinkish. This species
inhabits the Atlantic and Gulf States from North
Carolina to Texas. Binney has written of it: "The
habits of this mollusk are somewhat aquatic. It is
found on the sea islands of Georgia and around the
keys and everglades of Florida, and in these situations
the shell often attains the length of four inches. Mr.
Say found it in the marshes immediately behind the
sand-hills of the coast. It is most readily found in

A FLORIDA MOLLUSK.

185

the center of the clumps of coarse grass on these
marshes. The animal is in part, if not altogether,
carnivorous, and its powerful
lingual membrane, armed with
long, sharp-pointed teeth, is well
adapted to its food. By its ac-
tion the soft parts of its prey are
rapidly rasped away or are forced
in large morsels down the oesoph-
agus. It has been seen to swallow
entire the half-putrid remains of
another land snail, a Helix, and to
attack slugs, Limaces, confined in
the same box with it, rasping off
large portions of the integument,
and in some instances destroying
them. In one instance an individ-
ual attacked and devoured one of
its own species, thrusting its long
neck into the interior of the shell
and removing all the viscera."*

A single example of another smaller and prettily
marked shell, found to-day for the first time, is
Bulimulus dormani Binney, whose known range is
restricted to Florida. It is elongate-conic in form, an
inch and a fourth in length, and of a light flesh color,
with several revolving lines of interrupted reddish-
brown patches. A dead specimen of a large Planor-

Fig. 58— Glandh
Gmel

(After Binney.)

"Manual of American Land Shells, 1885, p. 349.

186 A NATURE WOOING.

bis, P. glabratus Say, is also secured from the side of
a ditch.

A large spotted frog leaps from before me and
alights with a plunk in the water of the ditch. I
scoop it out with my butterfly net, and find it to be
the southern form of the common leopard frog, Eana
virescens Kalm. The head is longer and more pointed
than in northern examples, and there is no lengthwise
band on the front of femur. Cope has given the
name splienocephala to this long-headed variety.
While mostly southern in its range, it has been found
in the cypress swamps of Knox County, Indiana.

Though I have been on the lookout for rattlesnakes
during my rambles about Ormond, I have not hap-
pened upon a single specimen. To-day, however, I
saw one in captivity which was captured near here a
week or so ago. It is a small specimen of the diamond
rattlesnake, Crotalus adamanteus Beauvois. This is
the common rattlesnake of Florida, and is said to
reach a length of eight feet. Many improbable tales
are told hereabouts of this reptile. Mr. Bennett avers
that an average of one person a year dies in this (Yo-
iusia) county from its bite. Probably one in a
dozen years would be nearer the truth. He states also
that he killed an old snake and twelve young, which
were accompanying her as chickens follow a hen.
Another citizen of the town afiirms that he has seen
the bodieis of two black snakes which, when cut open,
disclosed rattlesnakes which they had swallowed. One

52
S

THE DIAMOND RATTLESNAKE. 187

of these he saw capture the rattler. The black snake
crawled rapidly around its intended victim, as the lat-
ter lay coiled. The head of the rattlesnake turned at
the same time, its eye all the time fixed upon its
enemy. Finally it seemed to grow dizzy and its head
fell down, when the black snake immediately sprang
to the attack and swallowed its victim head first.

More probable is the following account of the hab-
its of the diamond rattler by Dr. Einar Loennberg,
who has studied for a number of years the reptiles
found in eastern Florida: "In the interior of the
country the diamond-backed rattlesnake is scarce, but
not so along the coast and on some of the Florida
keys. In the neighborhood of Ozona, in Hillsboro
County, I heard of the killing of nine rattlesnakes
within two weeks in October, 1892. It evidently pre-
fers the neighborhood of the water, and is a good
swimmer, not afraid to cross over from *key? to
'key.' If not too often disturbed this species is slow
and does not rattle unless offended. I saw one in
the latter part of October in the pine woods near
Toronto, Orange County, coiled up under a palmetto
bush. A dog following us went up and sniffed at
him, with his nose hardly a foot from the snake. We
called the dog back and a man ran forward with a
whip and struck the snake several times. After the
second blow the snake began to rattle and made him-
self ready to strike. This shows plainly the slow na-
ture of the snake. In other cases they are more easily

188 A NATURE WOOING.

offended. Those kept in boxes and cages often begin
to rattle as soon as they see anybody approaching.
They are easy to keep alive, and take food without
trouble. I saw one that was kept in a small box and
was fed with toads ; it did so well there that it changed
its skin twice in a summer. They are often kept in
the shops of taxidermists and in 'curiosity stores/
where Northern tourists buy them, paying good
prices. The skin is often used for ornaments or for
the manufacture of pocketbooks and similar objects.

"People are very seldom bitten by rattlesnakes in
Florida. The rattling, the strong odor, and the slow-
ness of the snake are protective. This snake is often
caught by placing an empty barrel over the coils,
after which a board is shoved under the reptile and
the whole thing turned over."*

Besides the diamond rattlesnake, the small ground
rattler, Sistrurus miliarius L., closely allied to the
northern massasauga or prairie rattlesnake, occurs
throughout Florida. The other poisonous reptiles of
the State are the water-moccasin or "cotton-mouth,"
Ancistrodon piscivorus Lacepede, and the coral or
bead snake, Elaps fulvius L., both of which range
north to southern Indiana. The former belongs to
the same genus as the copperhead of the north. The
coral snake is a handsome reptile, being possessed of
a slender body which is encircled by alternate bands
of jet black and bright red, fourteen to nineteen of

* Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., XVII, 1894, p. 335.

THE CORAL SNAKE. 189

each, the latter color merging into yellow at the edges
of the rings. Much discussion has taken place con-
cerning the ability of the coral snake to inflict a dan-
gerous bite, mainly on account of the smallness of its
mouth and the shortness of its fangs. Dr. Loennberg,
however, records the death of a Swede whom he knew
at Oakland, Orange County, the man dying twelve
hours after being bitten by one of these reptiles. He
also states that he had heard of several other cases of
boys dying from the effect of the Elaps' bite. He
adds: "Elaps fulvius is, however, a good-natured
snake, and it does not bite unless it is very much
provoked. If not handled too roughly, it may be al-
lowed to crawl on one's hands from one to the
other. I have allowed it myself once, but I hardly
think I would do it over again, and would not advise
anybody else to try it."*

I saw none of these poisonous snakes about Or-
mond, though I heard all of them mentioned as being
found there. The Elaps is said to be common there
from mid- April until late autumn, being often plowed
or dug up in the gardens, or disclosed to view when
overturning logs or rubbish.

April 10, 1899. — This morning I seek the pine
woods and the sun — a place where nature is open and
generous — where the breezes freely play, soughing
and soaring amidst the needles of the pines — where
the sun shines only on pines, bunch grass and sand —

* Loc. cit., p. 334.

190 A NATURE WOOING.

where smilax, saw palm, scrub oak and brambles are
unknown. This morn a new life begins to stir within
me. I know not how long it will last. I feel that new
ambitions should be cherished in my soul, that the
old should be forsaken ; that new hopes should reign
in my heart, that the old should be forgotten ; that a
new love of nature should be forever with me, that
the old should belong to the eternity of the past.

I pause not until I reach the stream near the edge
of the pine woods ; a stream whose waters are clear,
yet dark; rapid flowing, yet here and there form-
ing quiet pools over which the dragonfly lurks, and
around which his prey, the humming mosquito, un-
wittingly flits. Here I capture several fine dragon-
flies, slender bodied, dark winged, handsome examples
of the species Argia, fumipennis Burm., and A. tibi-
alis Ram. One has a mosquito or allied insect in its
mouth, and I disturb forever its breakfast.

Along the borders of this stream, as far as eye can
see, is a tangled mass of smilax, wild grape, scrub oak,
saw palmetto and many other forms of creeping and
thorny shrubs and vines; the whole forming a mass
through which a man would have difficulty in forcing
his way, but among which the moccasin, rattlesnake,
alligator, mud puppy, raccoon, otter and other nox-
ious and innoxious mud-loving forms delight, and
through which they pass with ease.

High over the pine woods an osprey soars. What
seeks he there ? Ko mullet or minnow swims amidst

VIREOS AND DRAGONFLIES.

191

these sands. Perchance he is looking for a snake with
which to break the monotony of his piscatorial meals.
Perhaps a mouse, a wood rat, or even a rabbit is oc-
casionally relished by this fish-eating bird.

The red-eyed vireo sings as merrily and unceas-
ingly as on a day in
mid-May in Indiana.
The flowering dog-
wood, Cornus florida
L., blossoms here as
there. They take me
back to other days
when I chased the
slender black Argia
dragonflies along a
slow flowing, purling
brooklet — of other
days when a bevy of
happy young folks —

their hearts full of joy — their souls unused to care —
followed where I led, and listened to my tales of the
life of a dragonfly. For, in those days, I, as well as
they,

' ' Saw the dragonfly
Come from the pools where he did lie.

' ' An inner impulse rent the veil
Of his old hnsk : from head to tail
Came out clear plates of sapphire mail.

"He dried his wings; like gauze they grew.
Thro' crofts and pastures wet with dew,
A living flash of light he flew. ' '

Fig. 59— Red-eyed Vireo.

Vireo olivaceus L.

192 A NATURE WOOING.

Once again I sit in the threshold of the deserted
cabin in the pine woods. The sensitive brier,
Schrarikia horridula Michx., with its prickly pros-
trate stems, grows in clumps around the cabin. Here
also are two species of handsome yellow Composite,
showing the full beauty of their first spring blooms.
The little ground doves, paired for life, run in the
sandy pathway which leads away from the cabin door-
way. The sun, master of all, shines brightly o'er me
as I write. 'Tis a perfect April day, mild in tempera-
ture, balmy of breeze.

The field naturalist should ever seek new environ-
ments, look in new places, turn over new logs, pull
the bark from new dead snags, cast aside the gloomy
thoughts of what he is or what he may be, and live
and dream only of the sunny, joyous present. Would
that I could practice each day what I say unto my-
self, "That should I do." By turning to one side
and visiting a nook of these woods isolated from the
main tract, I have found this morning a pair of small
brown Tryxalid locusts, Macneillia obscura Scudd.,
of which but four specimens, from Fort Keed, Flor-
ida, have heretofore been known. ISTear them I take
also two females of an undescribed allied form. It is
an EriUttiXj four-fifths of -an inch in length ; brown,
with an ivory white median line two mm. wide ex-
tending from the tip of the fastigium to the end of
elytra. I shall call it E. sylvestrus — meaning "of the

THE DOG'S HEAD BUTTERFLY. 193

woods." Thus have I been rewarded for visiting this
nook.

On my way home I capture the male of a dog's head
butterfly, Colias coesonia Stoll, fresh from its winter

Fig. 60— Dog's Head Butterfly.

(After French.)

chrysalis. The yellow portion of the upper surface of
the front wing is so surrounded with black as to re-
semble a dog's head, the discal dot of black answering
for an eye. His is a wide range. 'Neath the tropical
sun of Mexico, the temperate sky of Indiana and the
blue of the Florida ether I have seen him winging his
onward way and have added him to my treasures.

April 11, 1899. — I am sitting as I write, on a
branch or fork of an old live oak near the center of
the mound of shells. At my right the roadway, sere
and brown with fallen leaves, leads onward between
rows of tall palmettos and lofty pines. On and on

13

194 A NATURE WOOING.

it goes, as far as eye can reach, forming one of the
most pleasing vistas among the noteworthy scenes of
this fair land. Two miles beyond this mound the
road reaches the end of the "Old Causeway/' that
portion of the old St. Augustine trail which was con-
structed across the broad marsh by the Spanish or
English planters, to enable them to reach the ferry
at "Buckhead Bluff" on the Tomoka. The Cause-
way passes, for part of its way, along the bank of
Thompson's Creek, a tributary of the Tomoka. The
still, deep waters of this stream are said to be well
stocked with black and channel bass, sea trout and
other forms of game fish, while alligators, musquash
and otter dwell along its shores.

As I sit here my thoughts revert to the race of old
— prehistoric — ante-red-man — a people of whom we
know little or nothing, who at one time resided here.
Through these forest glades, when returning from
the chase, their cries of triumph were echoed. Here
in a land of sunshine their wants were few and easily
satisfied; their ambitions lowly, their hopes eternal.
Hunger and thirst only did they have to allay. All
else was theirs for the seeking. Did they need shelter,
the leaves of the palmetto furnished it in plenty.
Food, the waves of the ocean brought it to their feet.
Theirs but to love, woo, mate, beget their prog-
eny and die. A happy, contented people they must
have been. Had not other and stronger races found
them out, coveted their possessions and made success-

PL XII.

A PORTION OF THE OLD CAUSEWAY.

Showing the rows of Cabbage Palmettos along its borders.

FAREWELL, 0, ORMOND. 195

ful war upon them, here still they might be found,
ignorant, innocent, contented, and for that innocence
and contentment to be envied by such as we — we
who profess to be wise and therefore ever live in an
envious frame of mind, possessed of a discontented
soul.

'Tis afternoon, and for the last time I sit beside iny
pine tree, whose crown each dawn doth greet the first
ray of the rising sun. For the last time I have been
through the old orange orchard seeking therein what
I might find. For the last time I have trodden the
woodland path which leads by the vacant house.
Many times during the past five weeks have I passed
along these pathways. Many times have I sat where
I now am, with my head, aweary, resting against the
pine. From to-day on, perhaps forever, I am a
stranger to this land. From to-day on its sun will
shine as brightly, its breezes blow as balmily, its pines
nod as gracefully and its surf roar as soothingly, but
they will bring not peace nor contentment to my soul,
nor health and strength to my body. A long farewell
to thee, O, Ormond by the Sea !

A DAY ON THE UPPER ST. JOHN'S
RIVER.

" Rivers are the constant lure, when they flow by our doors, to distant
enterprise and adventure. * * * * They are the natural highways of
all nations, not only leveling the ground and removing obstacles from
the path of the traveler, quenching his thirst and bearing him on Iheir
bosoms, but conducting him through the most interesting scenery, * * ''•'
and where the animal and vegetable kingdoms attain their greatest per-
fection ."— Thoreau.

' The St. John's stands unique among the rivers of
America in that its headwaters are on a level but
about six feet above that of the Atlantic whose coast
it parallels. Again, its general course is northerly,
so that in ascending the river one is traveling south-
ward. It drains the eastern portion of the northern
half of Florida, traversing a low, sandy region, but
following a very winding course so that its extreme
length is about 300 miles. In its upper third, or from
its mouth to Palatka, where I boarded the steamer for
my trip along its upper course, the appearance of the
river is that of a wide inlet from the sea. It is here
a tide-water stream, in places two or three miles in
width, and with straight stretches of sufficient length
to give a water horizon. Above Palatka it gradually
narrows, until at the outlet of Lake Monroe its
breadth is reduced to one hundred and fiftv feet.

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1

HEADWATERS OF THE ST. JOHN'S. 197

Three enlargements, termed lakes, are traversed by
the river. The lower and larger of these is Lake
George, about forty miles above Palatka, which has
an extreme length of thirteen miles, and a breadth of
six to eight miles. The others, Lakes Monroe and
Harney, are a little less than half this size. At pres-
ent the larger river steamers ascend only to San-
ford and Enterprise on the shores of Lake Monroe.

Besides the lakes mentioned, through which the
river passes, a number of others of considerable size
lie a few miles distant from it, and their overflow-
ing waters enter its channel through tributaries. The
chief ones of these are Dunn's Lake, Lake Dexter,
Lake Beresford and Lake Jessup.

The headwaters of the St. John's, according to
Prof. Wyman, are ain Lakes Washington, Winder
and Poinsett and the adjoining swamps south of these,
to which must be added the swamps between the
lakes just mentioned and Lake -Harney, all of which
together have an area of several hundred square
miles, and form great reservoirs in which the summer
rains are collected. These head waters are separated
by low land, rising but little above their level, from an
extensive chain of lakes which have an outlet south-
ward into the Kissimmee and thence into the great
lake of Okeechobee. When the river is at its highest
level, just after the rainy season, it is said that the
sources of the two rivers flowing north and south, viz.,

198 A NATURE WOOING.

the St. John's and the Kissimmee, come so near to-
gether as almost to communicate.

"The river has its annual rise and fall, which occur
with great regularity. The maximum rainfall over
its basin is in June, July and August, when it
amounts, along the head waters, to about twenty
inches for the three months, and the least is
in December, January and February, when it
does not exceed six inches for the same pe-
riod. During the rainy season the reservoirs of
the St. John's, consisting of the combined lakes
and swamps already noticed, as well as those of the
Oklawaha, in the aggregate having a surface of
many hundreds of square miles, receive immense
quantities of water, which are gradually discharged
through these two rivers. In consequence of the
slight difference of level existing between the river
and its shores a somewhat extensive inundation takes
place in its middle portion.

"The high level of the river is maintained for a
time by the steady outflow from the reservoirs, but in
the course of the spring the water recedes, leaving
behind deposits of mud, remnants of aquatic plants,
and various kinds of drift material, all of which are
gradually converting the swamps into dry land."

April 12, 1899. — I awaken at 5 o'clock, after a
night of fitful slumber, on board the "City of Jack-
sonville,"* a river steamer plying between Jack-

!:'I had taken the boat at Palatka at ten o'clock the evening before.

MORNING ON THE RIVER. 199

sonville and Sanford. Hurriedly dressing and don-
ning an overcoat as a protection against the cool
and bracing air, I make my way to the forward
deck. The sun, just peering above the horizon,
is beginning to scatter the few wisps of mist which
linger along the banks of the river. I ascertain from
a deck hand that we have just left Astor, a landing
about ten miles above Lake George. The stream,
here about one hundred yards wide, winds its way
between densely wooded banks. The timber is mostly
hard wood; oak, elm, sweet-gum, hickory, cypress,
bay, etc., all more or less encumbered with the swing-
ing tufts of gray Spanish moss. Occasionally a palm,
tall and stately, rises amidst the other trees, or a grove
of them covers some dike along the shore, their pres-
ence adding much to the semi-tropical aspect of the
scene.

At times a bittern, Botaurus lentiginosus Montag.,
is flushed, rising with a "quawk" and winging its way
before us to some sheltered cove. Blue herons are
common, and occasionally as the prow of the boat
turns a bend a snake-bird, Anhinga anhinga L., with
long and slender neck, arises and flies up some inlet
or high over the bordering forest. The range of this
bird is through tropical and semi-tropical America
north to southern Illinois, and casually to Indiana and
Michigan. According to Bartram it was formerly
very common on the St. John's, but like many other
of the rarer birds and mammals has been driven to

200

A NATURE WOOING,

the more retired creeks and lagoons by the senseless
warfare of shot-gun and rifle waged upon them from

the decks of the river
steamers. In his
"Travels" Bartram
has noted its pres-
ence along the St.
John's in the follow-
ing language: "There
is in this river and in
the waters all over
Florida, a very curi-
ous and handsome
species of bird; the
people call them
Snake Birds ; I think I have seen paintings of them on
the Chinese screens and other India pictures. They
seem to be a species of cormorant or loon, but far
more beautiful and delicately formed than any other
species that I have ever seen. The head and neck of
this bird are extremely small and slender, the latter
very long, indeed, almost out of all proportion ; the
bill long, straight and slender, tapering from its ball
to a sharp point ; all the upper side, the abdomen and
thighs, are as black and glossy as a raven's, covered
with feathers so firm and elastic that they in some
degree resemble fish scales. The breast and upper
part of the belly are covered with feathers of a cream

Fig. 61— Snake Bird.

THE SNAKE BIRD. 201

color, the tail is very long, of a deep black, and tipped
with a silvery white, and when spread, represents an
unfurled fan. They delight to sit in little peaceable
communities, on the dry limbs of trees, hanging over
the still waters, with their wings and tails expanded, I
suppose to cool and air themselves when at the same
time they behold their images in the watery mirror.
At such times, when we approach them, they drop
off the limbs into the water as if dead, and for a min-
ute or two are not to be seen ; when, on a sudden, at a
vast distance, their long, slender head and neck only
appear and have very much the appearance of a snake
and no other part of them is to be seen when swim-
ming in the water, except sometimes the tip end of
their tail. In the heat of the day they are seen in
great numbers, sailing very high in the air, over lakes
and rivers.

"I doubt not but if this bird had been an inhabitant
of the Tiber in Ovid's days, it would have furnished
him with a subject for some beautiful and entertain-
ing metamorphoses. I believe it feeds entirely on
fish, for its flesh smells and tastes intolerably strong
of it ; it is scarcely to be eaten unless constrained by
insufferable hunger."*

Turning one of the many bends of the river a low,
flat tract of land comes into view, stretching miles
away to the left. It is covered with a species of saw

*Loc.cit., p. 130.

202 A NATURE WOOING.

grass which grows so densely that stock can not pene-
trate it. Accessible to man only when he cuts his
pathway before him, it is said to be inhabited by
snakes, raccoons, 'possums and marsh rabbits. The
soil of this and many similar tracts is a rich vegetable
muck, but will be wholly worthless until the time
comes, if it ever does, when the St. John's will be
drained out to the sea, eighteen to thirty miles to the
eastward.

The first stop after dawn is at St. Francis, which
occupies a strip of somewhat higher ground, and is
composed of a dozen or more large frame houses
located some distance back from the landing. A dead
orange grove takes up much of the space about the
town. Numerous sacks of corn and other freight are
unloaded and several deck passengers disembark. On
consulting a folder, I find that these passengers, who
have been up all night, pay $1.00 each from Jackson-
ville to St. Francis and points beyond to Sanford,
while cabin passengers pay $3.50, including meals and
berth.

At several places along the banks large barges are
moored on which stationary engines are standing.
About the barges are immense rafts of cypress and
other trees. I am informed that lumber companies
from the north have recently bought up great tracts
of timber bordering the river. The engines are used
to "snake" or drag out the logs, sometimes from a
half mile back from the water. The rafts, when

SOME FLORIDA ENTERPRISES. 203

completed, are then floated down the stream to saw-
mills located convenient to railways.

A gentleman from Ocala tells me that much money
is made in Central Florida by raising cattle, which are
allowed to run wild. A three-year-old steer brings
$20 and costs nothing except the expense of an occa-
sional round-up. All cultivated land is fenced, and
the remainder, forming the range, is free to all. For
cattle or cows killed by railways the owners receive
$12 each. Another gentleman avers that the tur-
pentine business is the only paying one in Florida.
Good tracts of the long-leaved pine which yields the
turpentine can be bought for $1.50 per acre. With
a capital of $5,000 to invest, a man, if possessed of
sufficient energy, can become wealthy in a few years.

Stops are made at Crow's Bluff and Hawkinsyille,
both small towns on strips of high land adjoining the
river. The pilot of the boat is a negro. He and his
assistant, a boy who is evidently learning the river,
have hard work rounding some of the abrupt bends,
especially above the inlet from Beresf ord Lake, where
the river contracts in places to but little more than
one hundred feet in width. The boat, a very large
one, moves slowly along these narrow stretches with
little shaking or appreciable motion, though the
engine heaves, pants and emits great volumes of
smoke when rounding the bends.

Where the cabbage palmetto stands close to the
water the stem rises from a great conical mass of

204 A NATURE WOOING.

fibrous roots, ten feet in circumference and three or
four feet above the water's level. These root masses
resemble haycocks, with the tall, straight stem rising
from their apex — a stem devoid of branch, devoid of
bark and with only a tuft of leaves at the top — most
striking of the vegetable kingdom along the river
when growing thus.

An aquatic plant which is exceedingly abundant in
all the inlets and bays opening into the upper two-
thirds of the St. John's, as well as bordering the
shores everywhere along its slower flowing stretches,
is the water hyacinth, Piaropus crassipes Mart. It is
a native of tropical South America, and on account
of its clusters of handsome, light blue flowers, was
introduced into the southern United States. Here it
has flourished so freely that it has become a serious
menace to navigation ; so much so, indeed, that it has
been the subject of special legislation by Congress,
and has been treated in a special bulletin of the U. S.
Division of Botany.*

The plant is aquatic and is usually found floating
on the surface of the water. The roots may, however,
attach themselves to the soft mud along the banks
and the plant thus become fixed. In such a location,
however, they are usually dwarfed in size, and if the
soil becomes comparatively dry the plants will soon
die.

*"The Water Hyacinth and its Relation to Navigation in Florida."
Bull. No. 18, U. S. Division of Botany, 1897.

A TROUBLESOME PLANT.

205

The leaves of the water hyacinth form a rosette a
foot or more in height which remains above the water
as the plant floats. The basal portions of the leaves of

Fig. 62— Water Hyacinth.

(From Bull. 18, U. 3. Dir. Bot.)-

206 A NATURE WOOING.

young plants are swollen into bulbs which contain air
cavities. These serve as buoys to keep the plant above
water and prevent it from being overturned by wind
or waves. The leaves, flowering stems and roots of
the old plants become so thoroughly matted together
that they are with difficulty torn apart, and are there-
fore in no danger of overturning. The roots form a
dense fibrous .mass, often two feet in length, which is
submerged and absorbs food from the water. The
plant flourishes best in sluggish fresh-water streams
whose water is yellowish or brownish from the pres-
ence of an excess of organic matter. It will not live
in salt or brackish water, and though floated down in
large patches into the lower third of the St. John's,
it there soon dies.

The plant was introduced into the St. John's about
1890 at Edgewater, four miles above Palatka. The
refuse from a pond, in which it had been cultivated,
was dumped into the river, and the hyacinth finding
the slow-flowing, turbid water in every way suited to
its needs entered on a stage of rapid growth and re-
production unprecedented in its history. In time it
almost wholly blocked the river above the railway
bridge at Palatka. Small boats with screw propellers
found it impossible to penetrate a large mass of the
plants, as the latter became entangled in the screw
and prevented it from turning. Large steamers going
at full speed come almost to a standstill when they
strike a floating mass of the hyacinths. Floating logs

A FISH STORY. 207

and other obstructions are often hidden among the
plants and are struck by the boats. It is also esti-
mated that lumbermen along the upper courses of the
river have been damaged to an extent of $50,000 an-
nually by the increased difficulty in rafting caused by
the presence of the plant. The smaller tributaries in
which the rafts are often formed have become so
choked that they are useless for the purpose of form-
ing and floating the rafts.

As our own steamer moves slowly onward the suc-
tion, caused by the water rushing in to fill the partial
vacuum of the wake at the stern of the boat, breaks
off large masses of the hyacinth, and causes them to
move towards the center of the stream. Small col-
onies, perchance a single plant, come floating by, mov-
ing onward like a fairy boat, buoyed up by the
sponge-like air-filled bulbs. Innocent and worthy of
admiration are they when thus seen singly, but a
veritable scourge when present in vast numbers.

At intervals I see cows and cattle along the edges
of the marshes close to the river, their bodies im-
mersed to above the middle of their sides, as they
browse upon the floating aquatic mosses, hyacinths,
etc. A passenger, on seeing them, states that it is a
common thing for the cows in this section of the
State to dive for mosses and while so doing to impale
a number of fish on their horns. When they go
home at night the children remove the fish and pre-
pare them for supper, while the mother milks the

208

A NATURE WOOING.

cows, the bovin-es thus furnishing both flesh and milk
for the family meal. Another passenger asserts that
"The Lord made the earth in six days, and, when
Florida was but half finished, rested on the seventh.
He then forgot to complete his work." One can not

vouch for the accuracy of
either statement.

Turning a sharp bend,
we surprise a bald eagle
with plumage worn and
soiled, sitting with a half
dozen carrion crows on
some limbs near a fisher-
man's hut. The waters
displaced by the boat
move in immense waves
rapidly shoreward and

dash with force against the banks, swamping several
rowboats there moored.

Just above the J., T. & K. W. Railway bridge the
river, whose course is here almost due east, expands
into Lake Monroe, a fine body of water, about six
miles in length by four in breadth. On the right, or
south shore is Sanford, a typical southern town of
2,100 population; while on the left or northern shore
is Enterprise, a rival though smaller place. Before
the 1895 freeze, which killed all the orange groves of
this region, Sanford was more prosperous than now.
This freeze disheartened for a time the citizens of

Fig. 63— Bald Eagle.

AT SAUFORD. 209

the town, but they are now beginning to engage in
other enterprises and the place bids fair to soon re-
cover its wonted activity of the "days before the
freeze."

While the steamer, which is two hours behind time,
is discharging and taking on freight, I take a stroll
about several of the streets. The sidewalks I note
are mostly of comminuted shells, and inquiry devel-
ops that they come from two shell mounds, each
about three miles distant, one near the head of the
lake, the other near the railway bridge above men-
tioned. The shells are seemingly all fresh water spe-
cies, mainly of the genera Ampullaria and Paludina.

The small buzzards or "carrion crows" are com-
mon on the house-tops of Sanford, while ground
doves are almost as plentiful in the streets as are
English sparrows in the northern towns.

The steamer takes on many immense bales of pal-
metto fiber, which has been separated from the trunks
of the cabbage palmetto by a large factory located in
Sanford near the river. Numerous barges are un-
loading at this factory sections of the upper fifteen or
twenty feet of the trunks of this tree. Leaving San-
ford the steamer makes its way across to Enterprise,
where, after discharging a miscellaneous lot of freight
and loading the household furniture of two or three
families of negroes, it starts on the return trip.

At Blue Springs Landing, which is but twelve miles
from ISTew Smyrna, an important town on the Atlan-

14

210 A NATURE WOOING.

tic coast, a large spring of clear blue water wells up
from a basin. A railway runs from here to New
Smyrna, and much freight is brought here by river
on account of the cheaper transportation. Among it
to-day is an immense amount of baled hay from the
north. At Crow's Bluff the steamer is flagged, and,
on making the landing, a barrel of alligator skins is
loaded, that being the sole incentive for the stop. The
bluff is but a bank, whose surface is six feet above
the level of the water. A turpentine camp is the prin-
cipal thing in sight.

A short distance below the bluff a large alligator
is seen to plunge headlong into the water from the
bank where he has been basking. An hour after-
ward, or about mid-afternoon, when the air has be-
come warm and the sun shines bright, they begin to
be frequent. Sometimes a dozen or more are seen
swimming near the bank, their heads and crests
just visible above the turbid water. Others are
stretched out on the level bank in some favorite sun-
ning spot. However, they have been fired at so much
from steamers that they usually plunge into the
water long before we get close enough for a good
view.

The reflections of the trees and other objects along
shore in the dark water are most pleasing in the
bright sunlight. Every twig, every spray of pendent
moss, every clump of grass and bunch of hanging
fibrous roots is plainly portrayed. Where the tree

REFLECTIONS IN THE WATER. 211

bends over the water the tips of the festoons of moss
in air seem to almost meet those in water. Leaning
over the steamer's rail and gazing down one sees, as
it were, a new world beneath him, and is tempted at
times to leap overboard into the midst of the entranc-
ing scene. A lazy kind of life this, whiling away the
sunny hours watching for alligators from a steamer's
deck and gazing upon the reflections in the waters
deep and dark.

A few miles farther and the river begins to widen
out into great bayous or lagoons of still, shallow
water, in which the yellow pond lily, or spatterdock,
NupJiar advena Ait., and the water hyacinth are en-
gaged in a deadly struggle for existence. In general
the waters in the main channel of the St. John's are
deep, seldom less than fifteen feet, and in many places'
exceeding ninety feet, so that with a skillful pilot,
boats of large size have little if any difficulty in navi-
gating the stream. The current is everywhere slug-
gish, being only about a mile and a half an hour.
Eight steamers ply regularly up and down the river
and its main tributary, the Oklawaha, carrying mail,
freight and passengers. Easy means of transporta-
tion and low freight rates are thus accorded all points
along the stream.

At Astor is located a factory for separating tannic
acid from the large, thick root-stocks or underground
stems of the saw palmetto. Hundreds of cords of
these root-stocks are piled up along the shore. The

212 A NATURE WOOING.

town is of small size, and is noted only as being one of
the terminals of the St. John's & Lake Eustice Rail-
way.

Volusia, the next stop, is almost across the river.
It was once the county seat of the county of the same
name, but it is now an almost deserted place. A
climbing rose bush, in the full glory of its blossoming
tide is the most conspicuous object. The boat
stops here long enough to allow a grocer to count
out twenty dozen eggs, which he wishes to send to
Jacksonville.

A half hour after leaving Volusia we enter Lake
George through a dredged channel a quarter of a
mile in length. Piles are sunk on each side of this
channel to retard as much as possible its filling with
the debris brought down by the river. This lake is
the largest expansion of this remarkable stream. It
is a pleasing body of water, thirteen miles in length
from north to south, and about nine miles in greatest
width. Before we reach the outlet at the northern
end the shades of the coming night envelop us and
our day on the upper St. John's is at an end.

APPENDIX.

A LIST OF THE ODONATA (DRAGONFLIES) TAKEN IN THE VICINITY
OF ORMOND, FLORIDA, IN MARCH AND APRIL, 1899.

While searching primarily for Orthoptera, Diurnal
Lepidoptera and Coleoptera, such specimens of Drag-
onflies were taken as came readily to hand. These were
in time submitted to Mr. E. B. Williamson, of Bluff-
ton, Ind., a well known specialist of this group, who
kindly determined them for me. But 18 species were
found to be represented in the collection. Many oth-
ers were seen but not captured. The species are doubt-
less, there as elsewhere, much more abundant in the
summer than in the early spring months. The nomen-
clature of the list is that of Banks' "Catalogue
of the I^europteroid Insects of Temperate Xorth
America.'7*

1. Calopieryx maculata Beauv. March 21st;

April 1st, common. Ranges throughout the
eastern United States.

2. Lestes forcipata Kamb. March 7th. Common.

New England to Colorado ; south to Gulf of
Mexico.

'• Trans. Amer. Ent. Soc., XIX, 1892.
(213)

214 APPENDIX.

3. Lestes sp.? Three females taken March 6th,

13th and 15th, respectively.

4. Argia fumipennis Burm. Frequent along

streams and ditches in shady places, March
27th; April 10th. Recorded only from Ken-
tucky, Georgia and Florida.

5. Argia tibialis Ramb. With the preceding on

April 10th only. Ranges from Michigan to
Florida.

6. AnomalagrionhastatumSay. Frequent through-

out the month of^March. Ranges from north-
ern Indiana as far south as Venezuela and the
West Indies.

7. Anax junius Drury. • Common from March 6th

on, along the forest roadways. Throughout
the United States and Canada.

8. Gomphceschna furcillata Say. Frequent after

March 30th, along ditches by the side of rail-
way. Recorded heretofore from Massachu-
setts to Michigan and south to Georgia.

9. JEschna ing ens Ramb. Common from March

6th on. A species of southern range, recorded
only from the Gulf States.

10. Epiwschna heros Fab. A single specimen was

taken on March 23rd. Ranges throughout
the eastern United States.

11. Tetragoneuria cyanosura Say. A single speci-

men was taken in a woodland pathway on
March 6th. It occurs throughout the eastern
United States.

DRAGONFLIES. 215

12. Tramea Carolina Linn. Very common from

March 6th on. Frequents the forest road-
ways. Ranges from Massachusetts to Florida
and the West Indies.

13. Celithemis eponina Drury. One male only was

taken on March 31st. United States east of
the Rocky Mountains.

14. Libellula axillena West. Several taken near the

end of March. Not common. A species
whose range, as far as known, is restricted to
the Gulf States.

15. Libellula auripennis Burm. Common after

March 25th. Atlantic and Gulf States south
of New York.

16. Mesothemis simplicollis Say. Frequent from

March 6th on. Occurs in all the region east

of the Rocky Mountains.
IT. Pacliydiplax longipennis Burm. Common after

March llth. Ranges throughout the greater

portion of the United States.
18. Diplacodes minuscula Rarnb. Common from

March 7th to April 1st, in forest roadways

and pathways, where they hawk close to the

ground. Occurs from Kentucky to the Gulf.

216 APPENDIX.

A LIST OF THE ORTHOPTBRA TAKEN IN THE VICINITY OF ORMOND,
FLORIDA, IN MARCH AND APRIL, 1899.

During my stay at Ormond, from March 5th to
April llth, examples of thirty species of Orthoptera
were collected. The young of numerous others were
seen but not taken. There is little doubt but that
as the season advances, the order is as well represented
there as in any similar region in the south. Those
taken, listed according to Scudder's "Catalogue of the
Described Orthoptera of the United States and Can-
ada," were as follows:

1. Labia burgessi Scudd. Numerous examples of

this small brown earwig were taken from be-
neath the bark of shrubs and logs on various
occasions, from March 5th on. It was de-
scribed from Palatka, Florida.

2. Ischnoptera bolliana Sauss.-Zehnt. A single

male of this species was taken March 19th
from beneath a pile of weeds along the edge
of the Halifax River in the town of Ormond.
It has been recorded heretofore only from
Texas and New Mexico.

3. Ischnoptera unicolor Scudd. This species was

common from March 17th on, beneath the
bark of pine logs and stumps. Its range in-
cludes the greater portion of the United
States east of the Rocky Mountains. It is
my opinion, based on numerous observations

ORTHOPTERA. 217

made in the field, both in Indiana and Flor-
ida, that the short-winged species known as
Temnopteryx virginica Brunn. is the female
of Ischnoptera unicolor. The two forms are
mature at the same time, and are usually
found associated together, but I have never
seen a female of the long-winged Ischnoptera
or a male of the form known as T. virginica.
However, I have never seen the two reputed
species in coitu.

4. C eratinoptera lutea Sauss.-Zehnt. Several speci-

mens of this small yellow roach were taken
on March 10th and later dates from decaying
palmetto logs and beneath rubbish along the
borders of woodlands. It is a species of the
Gulf States.

5. Eurycotes ing ens Scudd. This large black, ill-

smelling blattid was the prevailing roach
about Ormond, being very common beneath
the bark of logs, stumps and dead trees, as
well as beneath rubbish in the woodland. The
first mature specimens were taken on March
10th. The young, described by Scudder
as E. sabaliana, are marked with yellow,
which disappears in the mature insect. The
species has been recorded by Scudder from
various localities in Florida.

6. Pycnoscelus surinamensis Linn. Two speci-

mens beneath bunches of hay, March 23rd

218 APPENDIX.

and April 4th. Ranges throughout the Gulf
and South Atlantic States.

7. Tettix blatchleyi Hancock. Two females of a

Tettix which proved to be new, were secured
on March llth and April 9th, respectively,
from damp, sandy places along a roadside,
west of Ormond. With the other grouse lo-
custs taken, they were submitted to Dr. J. L.
Hancock of Chicago, and by him described.*
He states that they belong to the T. arenosus
series but are distinguished from arenosus
and allied species by the "slightly more ru-
gose pronotum, more decidedly compressed
lateral carinse, and the compresso-narrowing
behind the shoulders of the dor sum." Dr.
Hancock states that a specimen from New
York, in the collection of the U. S. National
Museum, is of the same species.

8. Paratettix rugosus Scudd. This was found to

be a common species along roadsides and
about the borders of marshes in cultivated
grounds from March llth on. It has been
recorded from Florida, Nebraska and Old
Mexico.

9. Tettigidea lateralis Say. This was in company

with and even more common than the preced-
ing. Several pairs were taken in coitu on
March llth and April 9th. It ranges from

Tettigidae of North America, 1902, p. 91.

OETHOPTERA. 219

Florida and the Gulf States north to Central
Indiana and west to the Rocky Mountains.

10. Rhadinotatum brevipenne Thos. A curious,

slender-bodied Acridian, quite common along
the borders of woodland paths and old fields
on clumps of wire grass. (See ante, p. 150.)
It has been recorded heretofore only from Ft.
Reed and Orange, Florida.

11. Eritettix sylvestrus sp. nov. A medium-sized

brown and yellow species, with tegmina only
one-third the length of abdomen.

Lateral carinae of the pronotum moder-
ately arcuate just before the middle. Sup-
plementary carinae well developed on both
head and pronotum, almost as strong as the
median carina, and connected with the lat-
ter, especially on the head, with numerous
small cross carinae, thus causing that por-
tion of the disk between the supplementary
earinse to be reticulate in appearance. An-
tennae with basal half flattened; the apical
half gradually tapering. Tegmina aborted;
one-third the length of abdomen ; inner wings
represented by very small and narrow pads.

General color a light wood brown; the
outer face of hind femora, grayish brown.
A bright yellow line starts from vertex and
extends backward to tips of tegmina, covering
the space between supplementary carinae on

220 APPENDIX.

head and pronotum. Disk of pronotum, be-
tween supplementary and lateral carinse,
darker brown.

Length of body, female, 21mm.; of an-
tennae, 6 mm. ; of pronotum, 4.5 mm. ; of teg-
mina, 6 mm. ; of hind femora, 12.5 mm.

Two females from open pine woods on
April 10th.

12. Macneillia obscura Scudd. Two examples of

this little known species were taken in the
open pine woods, three miles west of Ormond,
on April 10th. It has heretofore been known
only by the four type specimens from Ft.
Reed, Florida.

13. Amblytropidia, occidentalis Sauss. This was a

common insect throughout my stay at Or-
mond, in old fields and deserted orange
orchards. The first specimens were taken on
March 6th. McNeill gives its range as "the
Gulf States north to Tennessee and Georgia
and west to Colorado and Arizona."

14. Arphia granulata Sauss. This species was also

quite frequent and found in the same locali-
ties as the preceding. Mature specimens
were taken March 6th, and it may be possible
that it winters in the adult stage. It has been
recorded heretofore from Florida and Ne-
braska.

ORTHOPTERA. 221

15. Chortophaga viridifasciata De Geer. Common

after March 7th, on grassy slopes in old fields
and orchards. The median carina of prono-
tum is higher and the mottling of green and
fuscous much more pronounced than in north-
ern specimens. Its range includes the United
States east of the Rocky Mountains.

16. Scirtettica picta Scudd. This handsome species

occurs sparingly on bare sandy places in old
fields and roads. It was described from Flor-
ida and has been taken at several points in
the State.

17. Psinidia fenestralis Serv. This is also a sand

loving species and was frequently taken in
company with the preceding after March 7th.
It ranges over the entire eastern United
States.

18. Trimerotropis cih*ina Scudd. One female was

taken on March 12th, from a sandy roadside.
~No others were seen. Its range is given by
Scudder as Manitoba to Texas.

19. Dictyopliorus reticuLatus Thunb. The nymphs

of this lubber locust were abundant on weeds
along road&ides and pathways, after March
20th. It probably reaches maturity at Or-
mond about May 1st.

20. Scliistorcerca americana Drury. Quite frequent

in old orchards and gardens throughout my
stay. Its range covers the United States east
of the Great Plains.

222 APPENDIX.

21. Schistocerca damnified Sauss. With the preced-

ing and more common after March llth. It
occurs from Pennsylvania and Illinois south-
ward.

22. Melanoplus propinquus McNeill. The males of

this, the southern representative of the north-
ern M. femur-rubrum, made their first ap-
pearance on March 16th; the females on
March 25th. They became common by April
5th, frequenting grassy slopes free from un-
derbrush. It is so far known only from
Florida.

23. Paroxya atlantica Scudd. Numerous examples

of this trim-bodied species were secured on
April 3rd and dates thereafter in a clearing
in the low hammock region west of Ormond.
It occurs near the coast in Georgia and
Florida.

24. Aptenopedes sphenarioides Scudd. Frequent

from March 7th on, in old orange orchards
and cultivated grounds. It lias heretofore
been .recorded only from Ft. Keed and Jack-
sonville, Florida.

25. Conocephalus nietoi Sauss. Four females,

three green, one brown, were taken from a
species of tall grass in orchards and clearings
on March 16th and April 2nd. Heretofore
it has been known only from Texas and
Louisiana.

ORTHOPTERA. 223

26. Ailanticus pachyme'rus Bunn. Several nymphs

of this locustid were secured on March 26th.

27. Gryllotalpa borealis Burm. A specimen was

brought me by a negro on March 20th. He
stated that it is very common about the bor-
ders of low, cultivated fields, and his state-
ment is borne out by the number of runways
I noted.

28. Ellipes minuta Scudd. On March 30th this

little burrowing cricket was found in num-
bers, in company with the grouse locusts
(Tettigirae) in a low spot in the corner of a
cultivated hammock. It occurs from Min-
nesota to the Gulf.

29. Nemobius ambitiosus Scudd. This handsome

little ground cricket was common in open
places along the forest roadways during
March and April. It was described from
Ft. Reed, Florida, and I can find no other
record of its occurrence.

30. Gryllus pennsylvanicus Burm. This was the

only field cricket seen. It was plentiful be-
neath rubbish in open and cultivated
grounds.

224 APPENDIX.

A LIST OF THE HBMIPTERA-HBTEROPTERA TAKEN IN THE VICINITY
OF ORMOND, FLORIDA, IN MARCH AND APRIL, 1899.

The true bugs do not seem to be plentiful in East
Florida in the early spring months. Representatives
of but twenty species were taken during my stay
there. These, identified and listed according to
Uhler's "Check List of the Hemiptera-Heteroptera of
^N"orth America/' are as follows:

1. Corimelcena air a Am. et S. Several specimens

• were secured from beneath rubbish on April
2nd. Its range covers the entire United
States.

2. Pangcem bilineatus Say. One specimen, March

25th, from beneath a log. It also is a species
of wide range, but is less common than the
preceding.

3. Stiretrus anchorago Fab. A single example was

taken April 3rd, on flowers of a Senecio.
While usually accredited to the Southern
States, it has been taken as far north as
southern Indiana, where it occurs in small
numbers.

4. Eucliistus servus Say. Several specimens of

this common species were taken from oak
leaves on April 2nd, and on dates thereafter.

5. Euchistus variolarius Pal. Beauv. One from

a leaf of thistle, on March 24th. It also is a
species of wide distribution.

HEMIPTEEA-HE TEROPTERA. 225

6. TJiyanta custator Fab. One, March 13th, from

bracts of thistle. Ranges over the entire
United States, but in my experience is no-
where common.

7. Euthoctha, galeator Fab. Several specimens

were token from flowers of Senecio, etc., on
March 22nd and later dates. It also occurs
throughout the United States.

8. Metapodius femoratus Fab. From leaves of

orange trees and other shrubs, on several oc-
casions from April 2nd on. South Atlantic
and Gulf States.

9. Leptoglossus phyllopus Linn. On several occa-

sions from March 13th onward. It has the
same range as the preceding.

10. Margus inornatus Stal. Two, April 4th, from

flowers of thistle. One, April 9th, from
those of Senecio. !N"ot before recorded north
of Mexico".

11. Alydus pilosulus H. Schf. One, April 4th,

from sandy bank along railway. Occurs
throughout the eastern United States.

12. Harmostes reflexulus Say. One, April 2nd,

from beneath a pine log. Recorded by Uhler
from the Western States. Frequent in Indi-
ana.

13. Melanocoryphus bicrutis Say. Common after

March 24th, on flowers of Senecio and other

15

226 APPENDIX.

plants. Occurs throughout the Southern
States.

14. Atrachelus cinerem Fab. One, March 30th,

from leaf of oak shrub. It is also a species
of southern range.

15. Zelus lilobus Say. One, April 9th, from a leaf

of the saw palmetto. Its known range is also
limited to the south Atlantic and Gulf States.

16. Zelus cervicalis Stal. One, April 2nd, from

flower of the Senecio. Its range is the same
as that of the previous species.

17. Hammatocerus purcis Drury. Only nymphs of

this handsome bug were taken. While its
general range is southern, it occurs as far
north as Crawford County, Indiana.

18. Easahus biguttatus Say. One, April 10th, from

beneath a log. Uhler accredits it to the
Western States.

19. Melanolestes picipes H. Schf. Several speci-

mens were taken on different dates from be-
neath logs and rubbish. It appears to be com-
mon throughout the eastern United States
and, a few years ago, gained quite a reputa-
tion as the "kissing bug."

20. Soldo, pallipes Fab. Two from beneath logs in

damp sand, March 21st. It is also accredited
by Uhler to the "Western States."

BUTTERFLIES. 227

A LIST OF THE BUTTERFLIES TAKEN IN THE VICINITY OF ORMOND,
FLORIDA, IN MARCH AND APRIL, 1899.

I left Ormond on April llth, before many of the
spring forms of butterflies had changed from the lar-
val and chrysalis stages in which they pass the dryer
months. The species of Thecla and Pamphila, which
comprise a large portion of the butterfly fauna of any
region, were just beginning to appear, and many
others, doubtless belated by the frosts and cold days
of that season, were being called into active imago
life, just about the time I was leaving. As a conse-
quence, representatives of only 27 species were taken,
though a number of others were seen but not cap-
tured. To Dr. Henry Skinner, of Philadelphia, I
am under obligations for verifying the species of
Nisoniades and several other of the smaller forms.
Those taken were as follows :

1. Papilio ajax floridensis Holland. The Zebra

Swallow-tail. Quite frequent in the more
open forests after March 15th. This form
is said by Holland to be "prevalent in the
spring on the St. John's River."

2. Papilio troilus L. The Green-clouded Swallow-

tail. Common from March 6th on, about
flowers in the yards, and along the roadsides.
Ranges throughout the Atlantic and Gulf
States and Mississippi Valley.

3. Papilio palamedes Drury. The Southern Swal-

228 APPENDIX.

low-tail. This was by far the most common
Papilio about Ormond. On all warm sun-
shiny days, when the wind did not blow too
strongly, it was abundant about the yards and
gardens of the town ; along the roadways and
in the forest glades; winging its way from
clump to clump of spring flowers, or courting
coquettishly in the air. The first specimen
was seen on March 8th. It ranges from
southern Virginia to South Florida, and west-
ward to southern Missouri and Texas.

4. Papilio turnus Linn. The Tiger Swallow-tail.

Several specimens were seen from March 6th
on, but it was at no time as common as in In-
diana at a corresponding season. Ranges
over the entire eastern United States.

5. Papilio cresphontes Cram. The Giant Swallow-

tail. This species was noted from March
6th on, though but few specimens were seen,
and they were all smaller than the average
northern example. However, it is said to be
quite common later in the season; the cater-
pillar, known as the " Orange-puppy," at
times doing much damage to the foliage of
orange trees. While generally southern in its
range it has been taken in northern Indiana
and even in Ontario.

6. Callidryas eubule L. The Cloudless Sulphur.

Began to emerge on March llth, and was

BUTTERFLIES. 229

quite common thereafter in the old orange
orchard and about the flowers of the shrubby
buckeye, .ZEsculus pavia L. Ranges from
K"ew England and Wisconsin to Patagonia
and west as far as southern California.

7. Colias ccesania Stoll. The Dog's Head Butter-

fly. One, April 10th, from open pine woods.
Ranges from central Indiana south and south-
west to Orizaba, Mexico.

8. Agraulis vanillce L. The Gulf Fritillary. This

species was rather common from March 6th
on, in forest roadways and old deserted
orange groves. Its range is from Virginia
southwest to Old Mexico, and north as far as
southern Indiana.

9. Phyciodes phaon Edw. The Gulf Crescent.

A single specimen was secured on April 3rd.
Its known range is limited to the Gulf States
and Kansas.

10. Pyrameis atalania L. The Red Admiral. This

showy species was seen on various occasions

after March 14th. Its range is the entire

United States, it having been probably intro-

> duced from Europe, where it is also common.

11. Pyrameis huntera Fab. The Painted Beauty.

Several were seen on April 4th and dates
thereafter, in old fields and along the rail-
way. It also ranges over the entire United
States.

230 APPENDIX.

12. Junonia ccenia Hub. The Buckeye. A few

worn specimens' were seen on March 7th and
later dates. They were probably those of a
fall brood which had hibernated. The spe-
cies ranges across the continent but is found
in numbers only southward.

13. Neonympha gemma Hub. The G-emmed Brown.

This modest mouse gray butterfly was taken
in small numbers on March 22nd and once
or twice thereafter, but was much less com-
mon than its companion species. Like them
it frequents woodland paths and roadsides,
and is seldom seen in open, sunny places,
where most other butterflies delight to wan-
der. It is a southern form, ranging through
the Coast and Gulf States from "West Vir-
ginia to Mexico.

14. Neonympha eurytus Fab. The Wood Nymph.

This species was first seen on March 20th.
It soon became very common, and more of
them were taken than of any other butterfly.
Its range covers the eastern United States
as far as the Rocky Mountains.

15. Neonympha sosybius Fab. The Carolinian

Satyr. This, the smallest of the three Neo-
nymphas taken, was common throughout my
stay at Ormond, having been first noted on
March 6th. Its range is from New Jersey
southward to Central America.

BUTTERFLIES. 231

16. Calephelis ccenius L. The Little Metal Mark.

This little reddish brown species was rather
common about cultivated flowers from April
2nd on. Its range is from Virginia south
and west to Texas.

17. Thecla poeas Hub. The Least Purple Hair

Streak. This was the only member of the
genus taken, though others were seen which
escaped the net. A single specimen was
taken from the flowers of Senecio on April
3rd. It ranges from the Gulf as far north as
Indiana and West Virginia.

18. Pamphila zabulon Bd.-Lec. The Mormon.

This species was first seen on March 17th.
It is evidently in Florida, as in Indiana, one
of the first, if not the first Pamphila to reach
maturity. It and its varieties range through-
out the Mississippi Valley from Canada to
the Gulf.

19. Pamphila maculata Edw. The Twin-spot. A

single example was captured on April 4th.
It is a southern species which is occasionally
found as far north as New York.

20. Nisoniades icelus Lint. The Dreamy Dusky-

wing. Several were taken on March 27th
and dates thereafter. Its range includes al-
most the entire United States.

21. Nisoniades somnus Lint. The Dark Dusky-

wing. This is a closely allied species to the

232 APPENDIX.

preceding, and may be only a larger southern
form. It was taken in small numbers from
March 23rd on. Heretofore it has been
known only from the Indian River, 140
miles farther south.

22. Nisoniades ncevius Lint. Nsevius' Dusky-wing.

This species was first taken on March 12th,
and occasionally thereafter. It, too,- has been
taken before only on the Indian River.

23. Nisoniades juvenalis Fab. Juvenal's Dusky-

wing. A few specimens were secured on
March 23rd. Its range is over the greater
part of the eastern United States. The hab-
its of these four species of Nisoniades are es-
sentially the same. They frequent the bor-
f ders of woodland paths and sandy roadways;

seldom rise more than a foot above the earth,
and when disturbed, move in a strong and
rapid flight a rod or two distant and then
alight.

24. Pholisura hayliurstii Edw. The Southern

Sooty-wing. This little species was frequent
in damp, sandy places along roadsides from
March 23rd on. Its range is over the south-
ern half of the eastern United States as far
north as central Indiana.

25. Eudamus pylades Scudd. The Northern

Dusky-wing. This was a common species
throughout my stay at Ormond, having been

COLEOPTEEA. 233

noted the first day I arrived. It frequents
gardens and the borders of roadways. Its
range includes Canada and the eastern
United States.

26. Eudamus tityrus Fab. The Silver-spot. Fre-

quent about yards and orchards from March
25th on. Its range includes the whole United
States.

27. Eudamus proteus L. The Long-tailed Skipper.

This species was also first seen on March
25th, and became common before I left. It
frequents roadsides and cultivated grounds,
and ranges from New York south and south-
west to Central America.

A LIST OF THE COLEOPTERA TAKEN IN THE VICINITY OF ORMOND,
FLORIDA, IN MARCH AND APRIL, 1899.

As already noted, p. 51, the number of species of
mature Coleoptera about Ormond in the early spring
months is limited. Representatives of but fifty-five
were secured. These are listed herewith according to
the nomenclature of Henshaw's "List of the Coleop-
tera of America North of Mexico." Species preceded
by an asterisk are not included in Schwarz's "Coleop-
tera of Florida.77* Thanks are due Mr. H. F. Wick-
ham, of Iowa City, Iowa, for aid in determining and
verifying the species taken.

* Proo. Amer. Philos. Soc., 1878, p. 353 et. seq.

234 APPENDIX.

1. Cicindela unicolor Dej. But two specimens

taken, a male on March 12th and a female,
April 10th. Both from sandy pathways in
the woods.

2. *Calosoma scrutator Fab. Two from borders

of woods, crawling on the ground — April 1 st-
and April 4th.

3. Pasimachus marginatus Fab. Two on March

24th from beneath logs in the open pine
woods.

4. Pasimachus subsulcatus Say. Four from be-

neath a chunk on April 6th.

5. Scarites subterraneus Fab. One from beneath

log.

6. Morio monilicornis Lat. Frequent beneath

bark of pine logs and snags; March 15th,
17th, 25th.

7. *Pterostichus submarginatus Say. Two from

beneath bark of pine logs. One, March 24th,
immature ; the other April 8th. Dr. Schwarz
lists but one species, viz., P. acutangulus
Chal., of this genus from the State. Twenty-
three have been taken by me in Indiana;
showing that the genus is one of northern
range.

8. *Diplochila laticollis Lee. One specimen on

March 17th from beneath bark. Both Dr.
Schwarz and Dr. Hamilton list the variety
D. major Lee.

COLEOPTEEA. 235

9. *HeUuomorp~ha ferruginea Lee. Six were se-
cured beneath a pine log in the open woods on
March 24th.

10. * Anisodactylus rusticus Dej. One beneath a

log on April 1st.

11. *Anisodactylus terminatus Say. Several, on

March 24th and April 1st, from beneath bark
of logs.

12. Staphylinus tomentosus Grav. One, March

17th, from beneath bark.

13. Belonuchus formosus Grav. One, April 2nd,

from beneath bark.

14. Bledius basalis Lee. Several, April 2nd, from

a fungus.

15. Languria marginipennis Sz. A number on

April 2nd, from the flowers of a Senecio.

16. *Penthelispa hcematodes Fab. One, March

25th, from beneath pine bark.

17. Ulster sp. ? Several, March 6th, from beneath

pine bark.

18. Hister sp.? One, March 16th, from beneath

pine bark.

19. Tenebrioides semicylindrica Horn. One, April

1st, from beneath a chunk.

20. *Adelocera discoidea Web. One, March 25th,

from beneath bark.

21. Alaus my ops Fab. Common on various dates

from beneath bark.

22. Dicera lurida Fab. One, March 25th, from be-

neath bark.

236 APPENDIX.

23. Chauliognathusmarginatus^Sib. Common April

2nd, on flowers of Senecio.

24. Polemius sp.f One, April 2nd, on flowers of

Senecio.

25. Polemius sp.? One, April 10th, on flowers of

Senecio.

26. *Canthon Icevis Drury. One, April 1st, from

horse manure. Dr. Schwarz lists five spe-
cies, but this is not among them.

27. Phanceus carnifex Linn. One, April 4th, from

effete matter.

28. Phanceus igneus MacL. On several occasions,

from March 17th on, from horse dung. Var-
ies much in color.

29. Diplotaxis languida Lee. Two, April 1st, from

leaves of scrub oak.

30. Orthosoma brunneum Forst. One, April 10th,

from the leaf of a shrub. The punctations
on head, thorax and elytra are noticeably
fewer and smaller than in northern speci-
mens; the surface is, therefore, much
smoother.

31. Lema ephippiata Lac. A single specimen was

taken April 4th, from the blossom of a thistle.

32. *Bassareus croceipennis Lee. One, April 2nd,

from flowers of Senecio. Listed from Lake
Worth, Florida, by Dr. Hamilton.

33. *Bassareus lituratus Fab. One, March 25th,

from leaf of saw palmetto.

COLEOPTERA. 237

34. Cryptocephalus guttulatus Oliv. One, April

1st, from leaf of oak shrub.

35. Cryptocephalus bivius !N"ewm. One, April 1st,

from leaf of oak.

36. *Disonycha glabrata Fabr. One, April 2nd,

from leaf of oak shrub.

37. Porphyraspis cyanea Say. Several on March

26th, on leaves of saw palmetto.

38. Coptocycla guttata Oliv. One, March 27th,

from leaf of oak shrub.

39. *Chelymorpha argus Licht. One, March 26th,

from leaf of oak shrub. Smaller and black
spots less prominent than in northern speci-
mens.

40. Polypleurus nitidus Lee. One, March 29th,

beneath log in pine barren.

41. Ny ct abates pennsylvanica DeG. Frequent be-

neath bark of pine and other logs.

42. Nyctobates barbata Knoch. Frequent with the

preceding.

43. *0patrinus aciculatus Lee. One, March 17th,

from beneath a chunk.

44. Tharsus seditiosus Lee. One, March 25th,

from beneath pine bark.

45. *Uloma imberbis Lee. One, March 17th, be-

neath a log.

46. Uloma punctulata Lee. Common, March 17th,

and other dates beneath bark of dead pines.

47. Platydema erythrocerum Lap. One March

25th, beneath bark of pine log.

238 APPENDIX.

48. Platydema flavipes Fab. One, with the preced-

ing.

49. Arthromacra gagatina Melsh. Three, one pair

in copulation, March 22nd, from beneath
bark of pine logs.

50. *Eustrophus tomentosus Say. One, March

25th, from beneath log.

51. Attelabus analis 111. One, March 28th, from

leaf of oak.

52. Notolomus basalis Lee. Several, March 13th,

on flowers of thistle.

53. CJialcodermus collaris Horn. One, March 13th,

beneath board.

54. Centrinus sp. ? One, March 23rd, from flower

of thistle.

55. Sphenophorus sculptilis Uhl. One, March 15th,

from beneath log.

INDEX.

PAGE

Abbott, G. C., quoted 7

Allen, James Lane, quoted 11

Alligators 93, 143, 159, 210

American Locust 31, 51

Ant Lion, Young of 139

Auk, Great 175

Bartram, quoted 38, 52, 111, 160, 200

Bear, Black or Brown 158

Beetles of Florida 50, 55, 57, 66, 96, 103, 122,

133, 135, 136, 147, 154

Bittern 199

Buckeye, Shrubby 66,

Bugs, True 57, 58, 134, 137, 147

Butterflies about Onnond 29, 31, 34, 41, 48, 73, 81, 90,

100, 130, 155, 156, 193

Butterflies, Brown Skipper . 155

Buckeye 34

Dog's Head 193

Giant Swallow-tail 30,34

Little Metal Mark 156

Painted Beauty 155

Red Admiral 67

Silver Spot 155

Sulphur Yellow 48

Tailed Skipper 100

Tiger Swallow-tail 81

Wood Brown 90

Zebra 67, 130

Butterflies, List of 227

(239)

240 INDEX.

PAGE

Cabbage Palmetto 16, 77, 203, 209

Cabin, A Deserted 124

Carrion Crow 19, 209

Centipede 43, 99

Chamaeleon 26, 52, 139, 141

Chattanooga, Tennessee 15

Chipmunk 13

Chrysomelid Beetles 103, 147

Click Beetles 55

Cockroaches 29, 44, 73, 78, 86

Coleoptera, List of 233

Cooters 93

Cope, E. D., quoted 76

Coquina Clams 42

Limestone 109

Cormorants 92

Crabs, Fiddler 63

Hermit 42

King 60

Cranesbill, Carolina 86

Crickets, Field 78, 116

Ground 40

Mole 84

Sand-burrowing 129

Cross Vine 110

Crows 27

Danville, Kentucky 11

Death, Revery on 112

Deer, Virginia 159

Dog-ticks 100

Doodle Bugs 139

Doves, Ground 39, 192

Dragonflies 30, 33, 80, 86, 135, 152, 190, 191, 213

Drum-fish 132

Ducks, Wild 92

Eagle, Bald 154, 208

Earwigs 29

INDEX. 241

PAGE

Egrets, White, Slaughter of 144

Everett, Georgia 16

Fiddler Crabs 63

Fish-hawk 32, 63, 94, 154, 190

Florida, Railways of 19

Scenery of 21

Frog, Leopard 186

Southern Cricket 166

Toothless 75

Gopher 104

Guests of 105

Grasshopper, Cone-headed 70

Ground Crickets 40

Doves 39, 192

Halifax River 23, 59

Hammocks 35, 75

Happy Family 98

Hay, O. P., quoted 157, 178

Hemiptera-Heteroptera, List of 224

Heron, Great Blue 96

Small Green 97

Hills, Inspiration of 14

Holbrook, quoted 76, 101, 140, 157

Horse-shoe Crabs 60

Hubbard, H. G., quoted , 105

Hyacinth, Water 204

Jacksonville, Florida 21

Jiggers 87

Remedy for 89

Kentucky Blue-grass 11

Coffee Tree 9

River 10, 12

Soils of 13

16

242 IXDEX.

PAGE

King Crab 60

King-fisher 97

Kinglet, Golden-crowned 47

Lexington, Kentucky 10

Life, Revery on 135

Live Oak 110

Lizard, Blind 124, 125

Blue-tailed 46, 73, 74, 77, 82

Ground 44, 101

Six-lined 77

Locusts of Florida 81, 34, 48, 84, 115, 138, 149, 192

Locusts, Green Striped 34

Grouse 129

Lubberly 80, 150

Parti-colored 34, 84

Slender 29, 149

Loennberg, Einar, quoted 187

Magnolia 80

Mangrove 59

Marl, Formation of 74

Michaux, quoted 17, 118

Mole Cricket 84

Mound, Shell 165

Mosquito Inlet , . . . . 23, 60

Mullet, Jumping 131

Myriapods 43, 46, 99, 103

Naturalist, Pleasures of 71

Orange Groves about Ormond 32, 37, 83, 136

Ormond, Artesian Water near 49

Climate of 46, 84, 109

Fishes taken near 81, 131

Hotel 23, 24

Sea Beach of 31, 41, 43, 78, 153

INDEX. 243

.PAGE

Ormond Shell Mound 28, 71, 165

Topography about 45

Town of 23, 25

Trees near 40

Orthoptera, List of 216

Osprey 32, 63, 94, 154, 190

Palmetto, Cabbage 16, 77, 203, 209

Saw 25, 211

Papaw 67

Paroquet, Carolina 158

Pelican, Brown 62

Phlox 86

Pine Barren 95

Pine, Long-leaved 20, 117

Yellow 65

Porpoise 64

Pottery in Ormond Mound 179

Pseudo-scorpion 29

Quails 67

Rafinesque, C. S 10

Rattlesnake, Diamond 145, 186

Ground 188

Red-bug 87

Riley, C. V. , quoted 87

Sanf ord 208

Sand Burs 33

Sand-fly '. 109

Sand Grains, Origin of 123

Saw Palmetto 25, 211

Say, Thos., quoted 62

Scorpion, True . 69

Whip 68

Sea Snails 42

Trout . 128

244 INDEX.

PAGE

Shack, Structure of 137

Shell Mound of Ormond 28, 71, 167

Shells of Ormond Mound 169

Shufeldt, quoted 141

Snails, Land 46, 78, 184

Snake Bird 199

Snake, Black 145

Coral 145, 188

Ring-necked 82

Spanish Chimneys 37

Moss 20,52

Spreading Viper 85

Spring Days 65

Squirrel, Gray 27, 129

St. Augustine, Florida 22

Stink-bugs , 57

St. John's River, A Day on 196

Characteristics of 196

Head Waters of 197

Sun 83

Tar, How made 121

Temperature, Changes in 49

Tennessee River, Valley of 14, 15

Terrapin, Dry Land 104

Thistles, Insects on 57, 147

Thoreau, Quotations from 1, 7, 23, 27, 196

Ticks, Wood 100

Tiger Beetles 50

Tomoka River, Up the. 91, 109, 148

Turpentine, How made 119, 121

Turtle, Bauer's Box 152

Turtles of Florida 93, 152

Vinegerone 68

Viper, Spreading 85

Vireo, Red-eyed 191

Vulture, Black 19

INDEX. 245

PAGE

Warbler, Blue- winged Yellow 45

Prairie 91

Wardwell, Captain 59

Water Hyacinth 204

Whip Scorpions 68

Wild-cat 102

Wire Grass 20, 95

Woodpecker, Ivory-billed 158

Pileated 36, 68, 114, 148

Zebra 27

Wood-ticks 100

Worm Snake 124, 125

Wren, Long-billed Marsh 39

Wymaii, Jeffries, quoted 164

Yellow-throat, Maryland

Gleanings te Nature

BY

W. S. B LATCH LEY

State Geologist of Indiana

Based upon facts gathered in the woods and fields of Indiana

during the past ten years. 348 pages ; 15 full page

half-tone plates ; 100 illustrations in the

text; bound in silk cloth.

CONTENTS.

A REST BY THE BROOKSIDE.

HARBINGERS OF SPRING.

Two FOPS AMONG THE FISHES.

SNAKES.

A FEATHERED MIDGET AND ITS

NEST.
MID-SUMMER ALONG THE OLD

CANAL.

THE IRON-WEED.
TEN INDIANA CAVES AND THE

ANIMALS WHICH INHABIT

THEM.

A DAY IN A TAMARACK SWAMP.

MID- AUTUMN ALONG THE OLD
CANAL.

KATYDIDS AND THEIR KIN.

WEEDS IN GENERAL AND OUR
WORST WEEDS IN PARTICU-
LAR.

TWELVE WINTER BIRDS.

How PLANTS AND ANIMALS
SPEND THE WINTER.

A SEEKER AFTER GOLD.

"This book can be highly recommended for its honesty and directness of purpose.
The essays are truthful and give vivid touches of nature, the results of close and sym-
pathetic observation."— Dr. D. S.Jordan, in American Naturali$t.

" It is not only charming, but is also infinitely suggestive. I shall recommend it to
teachers and parents as one of the most helpful books upon nature subjects yet pub-
lished. The beautiful form in which the book is issued is also to be recommended." —
Stanley Coulter.

[OVER]

"The stories are simply told, and derive their chief value from being the outcome
of close personal contact with nature and from their local flavor. The book is to be
heartily recommended to the young people, not only of Indiana, but of the neighboring
States to which it is nearly as well adapted. It will take them out of doors on every
page and awaken a new interest in living nature." — Science.

"This book tells, in brief, more things that amateur naturalists — and every boy and
most adults are such — delight to know, and should know, about the plant and animal
life of Indiana, than any other book extant. It should be in every teacher's reading
circle and accessible to every natural history class in our public schools." — "Dr. A. W ' .
Brayton, in Indianapolis Journal.

"A true outdoor book, well designed to increase the pleasure and interest of an out-
ing."— F. M. Chapman, in Bird-Lore.

" The author is a true naturalist, and chapters written by a man of this kind are
worth reading. The book is beautifully illustrated and is well gotten up in every way."
— "Recreation.

Sent to any address, postpaid, on receipt of $i .10

THE N4TURE PUBLISHING CO.,

1725 Broadway, Indianapolis, Ind.

"A Nature Wooing"

A COMPANION VOLUME TO

il Gleanings from Nature"

By W. S. BLATCHLEY

Pages — many Plates and Illustrations. Price, postpaid, $i .25
The t<wo volumes to one address, prepaid, $2.20
Remit currency or money order

THE NATURE PUBLISHING CO.,

1725 Broadway, Indianapolis, Ind.

ENTOMOLOGY LIB