85 



of snakes especially noticeable for their abundance were Rattlesnakes (CVo- 

 taliis harridux L., ami Sisirnrns catenatus Eaf . ) and Copperheads (Af/kiMrodon 

 contortrix L. ). 



The ponds, sloughs and deeper swamps were the homes of many species of 

 fishes, mollusks and crustaceans. The creeks, shaded by tiie closely crowding 

 trees, contained water all the year round and in them smaller fishes reared their 

 young. The rivers were clogged and dammed with fallen trees and driftwood and 

 the water, when the streams were swollen by heavy rains, pouring over these ob- 

 structions, cut deep holes, which became the homes of great numbers of the larger 

 fishes. 



Wild Turkeys (Melea(/ri.s gallopavo L. ) were found in large flocks. IJoljwhites 

 {Colinus niginianus L. ) were so numerous that when they collected in the fall as 

 many as a hundred were taken in a day with a single net. Euffed (irouse {Bonasa 

 umbeUus L. ) were abundant. Ducks and geese, snipe and plover were found in 

 inestimable numbers where favorable conditions existed. Paroquets (Conurus 

 carolinensis L.) were more or less numerous over the entire region and in the lower 

 Wabash and Whitewater valleyc were as abundant as blackbirds now are in spring 

 and fall. Passenger Pigeons (Ectopistes migrutorius L. ) bred and roosted in many 

 localities. During the migrations they appeared in such numbers that they ob- 

 scured the sun and hid the sky for hours; sometimes for days in succession. The 

 strange appearance was made more wonderful by the continuous rumble of the 

 thunders of the oncoming clouds — the noise of the strokes of millions upon mil- 

 lions of wings. 



Besides these, more rarely, Swallow-tailed Kites {Elanoiden forficatun L. ) and 

 Ivory-billed Woodpeckers ( CnmpephUus principalis L. ) added their characteristic 

 forms to the wild scenery. The Osprey {Pandion haliaelm carolinensis Gmel.) 

 and the Bald Eagle {Haliwetus leucocephalus L. ) built their nests beside thte streams 

 and while one fished the other plundered the fisher. 



Within the dense shades of the deeper woodland there was but a small 

 number of birds. There quiet reigned. Twilight by day and densest darkness 

 by night. How oppressive the awful quiet amid those gloomy solitudes! Every- 

 where the smaller birds were few compared with their present numbers. 



But men of our race came upon the scene. Indians there had been there 

 before. As it always has been, and so will continue to be, when two races, one 

 superior, the other inferior, come into competition, the superior will overcome. 

 The contest was ineciual. The barbarisni of the Ohio Valley could not hold its 

 own against the alert and thorouglily ecjuipped pioneer. Soon the native l)egan 

 to part with his land. It was not long until many sought other homes. Others 



