BULLETIIV HB-v.. 



BOTANIC. 



OF """"^ 



THE CHARLESTON MUSEUM 



Vol. 4 CHARLESTON, S. C, APRIL, 1908 No. 4 



APRIL BIRD LIFE OF OTRANTO 



The country bordering Goose Creek in the neighborhood 

 of Otranto has been from time immemorial a paradise for 

 sportsmen. Ducks have always been more or less plentiful 

 on the creek, deer range freely through the swamps and 

 abandoned grass-grown fields, "partridges" are abundant, 

 and turkeys by no means rare, so that the members of the 

 two hunting clubs which control some thirty thousand acres 

 about Otranto can always enjoy good sport. Now it is 

 generally true that a sportsman's paradise is also a paradise 

 for the field ornithologist: and I doubt whether it would be 

 possible to find within a radius of twenty miles from 

 Charleston a region more interesting to the bird-student 

 than this Otranto country bordering what was formerly 

 Goose Creek. 



Except in name. Goose Creek no longer exists. The build- 

 ing of a water- works dam about four years ago some four 

 miles below Otranto backed up the water of the creek, caus- 

 ing it to overflow its low, marshy banks and spread far and 

 £- wide over the face of the country. Instead of the deep, nar- 



^ row, tidal stream which formerly wound past Otranto, there is 

 I now an immense reservoir covering thousands of acres of 



^ what used to be marsh, field, and forest. In some places, 



^ 35 



