around the lagoon. Three gray squirrels and four big, white-eared, white-nosed fox squirrels, whose thick gray-brown fur darkened on the head and tail to black, moved about in the mixed forest of water oak, willow oak and sweet gum beyond the bank where the pine log lay. A small raccoon ambled along the bank and stopped a minute at the pine log to sniff at the spot where the otter had feasted. There was man-scent about the place also, however, and the coon passed quickly on.
He was followed after a little by a cottontail, who came slowly along the bank nearly as far as the pine log and then turned down to the water's edge to nibble the stems of some tall, flag-like aquatic plants which grew there in profusion. Once the little hare stiffened and crouched low in the reeds as a black shadow swept over him; but, glancing up, he saw only a great blue heron flying over the lagoon and above the heron a circling snakebird, and jn a moment the cottontail resumed his feeding.
The brooding anhinga saw the rabbit come down to the edge of the water. Whether by accident or as the result of some sequence of ideas in the bird's rudimentary mind, the anhinga's gaze shifted immediately to the big alligator lying nearly submerged amid the logs and lily pads fifty yards away across the lagoon. It may have been mere chance which caused the snakebird to glance at the 'gator
