The Spy Glass from Arkansas City, Kansas • 14

THE SPY GLASS. HISTORY. From a distance these birds cannot be distinguished from the others. When closer the crane is distinguished by being a little larger and taller, while tbe curlew is nearer the size, but have a different shaped bill, which is also red. The white crane and egret have one common nesting ground, or rookery, which is usually as near impenetrable to man as it is possible for it to be.

Some miry marsh covered thickl with a low growth and usually under water is selected. They build low nests of course sticks and twigs; with but little nest shape about it. As a sequence the eggs and young often fall out and are destroyed by snakes, alligators, which usually infest such places. Every available branch is utilized for nesting, and it is not an uncommon sight to see twenty-live nests in a small shrub. The cranes lay two or three light blue eggs the size of a pullets, while the egrets lay an equal number of smaller, but deeper colored ones.

While nesting which begins about the first of April these birds live in amity, frequently their nest being in a few inches of each other. There is very few rookerys in Florida. There is a small one near where I live where abundance of eggs could be procured by any collector who cares to run the risk of being snake-bitten or plunging head first into the yawning mouth of an alligator's cave, providing he can stand the stench of the excrements, which give the shrubbry the appearance of being white washed, and is well nigh intolerable. This necessitates an immediate change of clothing upon emerging therefrom. The curlews are migratory and have no nesting place here as I have heard of.

That royal bird the Flamingo was an inhabitant of the lower Gulf shores forty years ago. One was killed by a New York sportsman ten years ago, eome forty miles south of Tampa Bay. BY GEORGE J. REMSBURG. All the wonderous things of nature-Objects of the earth and sea Are engaged in ceaseless effort, Writing out their history.

Monstrous planet, tiny pebble, Grain of sand what e'er it Dels a faithful, grave historian, Writing tomes of history. Rolling stones, when dashing downward O'er the mountain fast and free, Leave their marks upon the granite-Imprints of their history. Dried-up brooklet, ancient river, In their journeys to the sea, Left behind them well worn channels-Records of their history. Oft we see a freak of nature, Which we call a mystery, But a close investigation Will unfold its history. i i FLORIDA CURIOSITIES.

BY J. H. FRIER. BIRDS. Beginning with the Grallic family or waders, the egret is the most interesting, from the fact that the plumage from is back is a staple article at $5.00.

This is in demand by milliners and hat dressers and is causing this handsome bird to grow scarcer and shyer until it is difficult to get a shot at one of late years. The bird is snow white, with blue legs and bill which has a very sharp point, and capable of doing much mischief if advanced upon when wounded. When erect this bird stands about twenty inches high, and appears to be much larger than it really is; its weight being scarcely more than a pound. Its food consists of small fish, crawfish and frogs Its motion on the wing is easy and graceful in the extreme. There is a steel blue egret a little smaller than the snowy, and even scarcer.

Both birds congregate at times in good feeding wafers with the white cranes and.