266 THE NATURALIST OF THE ST. CROIX 



for me to get away. I know that 1 would find the woods of 

 Maine a new field for me, and I have long looked forward to the 

 time when I shall have a chance to shoot birds there. 

 Hoping to hear from you soon, I remain 

 Yours truly, 



Egbert Ridgway. 



Acknowledging the receipt of this letter September 

 16, of the same year, Mr. Boardmau says : " I go out a 

 few hours most every day woodcock or snipe shooting 

 but do not find anything rare. Among the j'oung 

 warblers I do not find any in nursing plumage — they 

 are most all in good full plumage and all look like 

 females. I hardly see a full plumaged male. I have had 

 a nice visit from Dr. Brewer and wife since I wrote you. 

 They were with us several days." Answering a letter 

 from Mr. Boardman in which he says : "I suppose you 

 and Mr. Brewster have returned from Illinois laden with 

 spoils," Mr. Ridgway writes under date of June 13, 

 1878: 



My trip was very successful in every respect. I think Mr. 

 Brewster is also quite well satisfied. I got two hundred and 

 sixty-five fine skins and about one hundred and fifty nests and 

 eggs besides live snakes and turtles and a tank full of alcoholic 

 specimens. Found the Duck Hawk breeding at Mount Carmel, 

 and got at one nest by cutting down the tree — a huge sycamore, 

 115 feet high (with nearly whole top broken off") and twenty-six 

 feet in circumference, but, fortunately, a mere shell at the base, 

 while the tree itself leaned a great deal, so that it required com- 

 parativelj'^ little chopping to fell it. By measurement the nest 

 was found to have been eighty-nine feet from the ground. Sev- 

 eral other nests were found in similar situations, but none were 

 accessil)le, while the trees were too large and solid to pay for 

 cutting. In this case got four full-fledged young and the female 

 parent. 



