the dismal gurgling of Florida Grackles, and the musical 

 "Kon-que-ree" of Red- winged Blackbirds continue all day 

 with scarcely a pause. Around the more open reaches, scores 

 of Kingbirds perch on the tops of the scattered dead bushes 

 and trees, screeching incessantly between successful sallies 

 after passing insects and making noisy assaults upon the 

 Purple Martins which skim back and forth above the surface 

 of the water, now and again uttering their full, flute-like 

 notes. Prothonotaries, Parulas, Yellow-throated Warblers, 

 Southern Yellow-throats, Red-eyed and White-eyed Vireos, 

 Tufted Titmice, Gnatcatchers, Brown-headed Nuthatches, 

 and an occasional Cardinal or Carolina Wren join in one 

 grand chorus among the green willows and feathery 

 cypresses, while, high overhead in the leafless decaying 

 pines, the jovial ''Old Kates" laugh noisily, drowning for 

 the moment the low, complaining voices of Red-bellied Wood- 

 peckers and Florida White-breasted Nuthatches and the 

 clear, staccato whistles of Southern Hairy and Southern 

 Downy Woodpeckers. These that I have mentioned are the 

 principal performers to be heard actually in the flooded 

 lands: but there are several others who seem, for some 

 reason, to avoid the trees and reeds of the reservoir, but 

 whose voices are heard continually from the woods around 

 its edges. Chief among these are clear-toned, spirited 

 Orchard Orioles, mellow-voiced Summer Tanagers, and 

 boisterous Crested Flycatchers. In the dry woodlands the 

 Crested Flycatchers especially are exceedingly abundant, 

 and it is difficult to explain their absence from the thinly 

 wooded parts of the reservoir, where their kinsmen, the King- 

 birds reap so bounteous a harvest of dragon-flies and other 

 wingedinsects.— unless it be that the autocratic Kingbirds 

 do not desire their presence. Once, as we paddled along in 

 •silence close to the shore, we heard the hoarse calling of a 

 Wild Turkey gobbler and the plaintive oft-repeated answers 

 of two Turkey hens among the green thickets close at hand: 



40 



