St. Landry democrat., 1878-09-14
SUMMER SPORT IN FLORIDA.

Wild Beasts Seeking the Ocean Beach--The
Flights Of Game and Song Birds
Clouds Of Mosquitoes and
Other Annoying
Insects
The approach of the summer months
on the eastern coast of Florida develops
new source of amusements to sporting
gentlemen. Bears leave the inland set.
Elements and gather on the ocean beach.
They luxuriate upon king crabs, turtle
eggs, and great fish stranded on the
shore. They find fish toothsome deli
cacy, and supplement- it with a dessert of
raw palmetto berries, The beach is one
vast thicket of palmettos. The berries
are as large as the end of aman's thumb,
and very nutritious and fattening.
Pumas and tiger cats also frequent the
beach in the summer months. They
subsist on crabs and fish, and freq uently
nail the young deer that browse upon
the mangrove buds. The islands skirt
ing the inner rim of the beach line are
covered with mangroves, and while the
buds are tender, deer throng to them by
hundreds. The water surrounding these
islands is shoal, and immense salt water
marshes stretch north and south very
near them. In early spring these
marshes are alive with widgeon, green
winged teal, mallards and other ducks.
They are favorite feeding grounds for
English and acknowledged snipe, and
countless snowy herons flock to them
AS the season advances the ducks and
snipe wing their way north, and
fairy stills and roseate spoon bills
take their places. Godwits, ibis,
willets, scissor bills, and sand peppers
fill the sir with wild cries, while
armies of plumed herons-blue, white
and bronze stalk along the shores of the
creeks, which are filled with spawning
fish. The alligators hatch their young
and catch long maps in the sunshine,
while focks of screaming paroquets and
delicate nonpareils hold merry carnival
over their heads. The hooking birds
give their fedglings first lesson in
music. The old birds sit On the shady
branches of wild orange trees and pipe
to the new beginners for hours. When
the novice begins to utter its srst tremu-
lous notes, the parents raise peans of joy,
and the young ones MAKE fresh efforts
until the trees are filled with sweet
music.
Young broods of wild turkeys pipe in
the hammecks and fill themselves with
grasshoppers and wood-ticSs. The rare
ivory-billed woodpeckes and his black
billed brother drum the trees. Brilliant
plumaged cardinals, mellow~throated
bullfnches and buxom butcher birds
hop from limb to limb, while broods of
young qusil trail around the thickets.
The great gray gull soars in from the
ocean, and the common fern gives place
to its lesser brother, whose graceful
movements and doye-like color equally
charms the eye. Fleets Of silvery peli-
cans ride upon the tide, and scores of
ernine birds watch their movements
with jealous eyes. Great bald eagles
swoop through the air and drive the
industrious ospreys from their fishing
grounds. The night heron loads the
darkness with strange sounds, and the
shrill whippoorwill and chick-wills-
widow add their notes to the concert.
Stray famingoes wander up from the
Keys and are lost in the marshes; broad
faced owls hold nightly trysts, and clap
per rails and marsh hens dart under the
mangrove bushes. That strange bird,
the limpkin, clatters its castinets on the
fresh water streams, and lubberly buz
yards doze on the dead limbs. The
Mexican eagle robs them of their plum
der, while airy man-of-war hawks float
in the upper sky. The swallow-tailed
kite chases the humming mosquito, and
marsh hawks dart upon moles and wood
rats.
Fishes pour in from the ocean. The
spotted bass and dotted sea front Skin
mish along the creeks. Gorgeous snap
pers, wild-eyed groupers and logy jew
fish lurk among submerged mangrove
roots. Zebra-skinned sheepshead and
broad Drained mullet fill the lagoons.
Great drum fish scour the shadows, keep
ing up an eternal tattoo The silvery
lady Gsh leaps from the water like sal
mon, and the flexible ribbon~fsh shoots
itself through lonely channels. The
chopper sleeps il shady hooks, and silver
scaled tarpun give exhibitions in tidal
eddies. The whiting and sea bass retire
to deep water, aud associate with the
streamel -rnouthed-fsh. Voracious sharks
and huge numbering saw-fish tread the
main channel in search of prey, and
sportive porpoises rollick over the bays.
Enormous stingraves and buffalo tails
lump from the waves in futile efforts
to rid themselves of annoying
sucker fish. Schools of golden
cavallo and bluefsh squirt in from the
ocean and follow the swarming mullet.
The striped sergeant-fsh, or saltwater
muscalouge, is on the qui vive, and the
electrical founder sleeps upon the fats