Notes from Field and Study 



263 



her, under whose care I fell on the death 

 of my grandmother. Thus it was that wc 

 became neighbors of Audubon at what 

 is now iSSth Street, New York. 



Audubon, in November 1843, had 

 returned from one of his long scientific 

 journeys to the great West. My aunt, Mrs. 

 Waldo, desired to visit him before he cut 

 his hair and beard, which it was his custom 

 to permit to grow untrimmed while on 

 these expeditions. She took me, then nine 

 years of age, with her. I have a perfect 

 recollection of that visit, and can now 

 imagine that I see him sitting in front 

 of his home, with the genial welcome 

 given to our party. He looked very old; 

 his hair and beard were then longer than 

 is represented in the frontispiece portrait 

 of his granddaughter M. R. Audubon's his- 

 tory of his life ; both were entirely un- 

 trimmed, the beard being very long and 

 pointed. He was dressed in a loose blouse, 

 apparently such as he had worn on his 

 expeditions of wonderful research. 



Close to the house was a large live 

 animal, either a deer or an elk, while close 

 by was a wire cage in which was a collec- 

 tion of large wild birds. All these riveted 

 my youthful attention, being indelibly 

 engraved upon my memory. 



When old enough, I returned to South 

 Carolina, living there until 1870, when I 

 moved to New York. One of my first 

 visits was to Trinity cemetery, to view 

 the monument to this illustrious man." — 

 Alexander Robert Chisholm, Late 

 Lieut.-Colcnel Confederate States Army. 



Bird Battles 



It is the custom, nowadays, to speak of 

 the English Sparrow as if he were the only 

 quarrelsome member of the flock, while 

 all the rest of the feathered songsters dwelt 

 in peace and harmony; but there's many 

 a deadly battle waged in the tree-tops in 

 which no immigrant from over the sea 

 has a bill. The Bluebirds and the Swal- 

 lows have been carrying on a long warfare 

 over a Martin house, and the outcry up 

 there, followed by the expulsion of one 

 bird, with two or three of his enemies in 



close pursuit, is no unusual occurrence. 

 Some time ago, there were always two 

 or three Hummingbirds hovering over 

 each bush in the flower-bed. On one of 

 the bright feeding -grounds daily visitors 

 were but three — a pair of birds and one 

 lone Ruby-throat. That poor winged 

 bachelor fared hardly at the hands of his 

 two fellow food-seekers. The two divided 

 their time equally between gathering 

 insects and chasing off what they were 

 pleased to consider the intruder on their 

 preserves. Hardly a bite could he get, 

 for their attentions. But he was persever- 

 ing, and would fly off to a near-by tree, 

 and, as soon as his pursuers' backs were 

 turned, like a flash he would be back again, 

 trying to get his bill into a flower before his 

 rivals should see him. Recently I saw a 

 duel between a Kingbird and a plucky 

 young Robin, that fought as though he 

 meant to get revenge for the many wrongs 

 that had been perpetrated against him, 

 and victory perched on his banner. At 

 the end of a hard-fought battle, the King- 

 bird lay dead on the ground, while the 

 Robin retired to the branches of a tree, 

 where he spent the rest of the afternoon 

 resting from his hard labors. Nor do these 

 little warriors confine their valor to com- 

 bats with their own kind. In an emergency 

 they will attack an even more formidable 

 enemy. They have been known to attack 

 cats, and to put this dreaded foe of theirs to 

 flight, though they are not so apt to worry 

 this enemy as are the Swallows. The 

 writer was recently moved to go to the 

 rescue of the family cat, when set upon by 

 a Barn Swallow, that was worrying the 

 feline into a frenzy. — Robert Page 

 Lincoln, Minneapolis, Minn. 



Are the B'rds Growing Less Abundant? 



Societies for the preservation of bird life 

 have for one of their strong arguments the 

 statement that the birds are being exter- 

 minated. In this. I feel like taking issue 

 with them, so far as our district is con- 

 cerned, though I do give them much credit 

 for their efforts to preserve bird life. 



Here, in Chester county, Pennsvlvania, 



