2^irti=lLore 



A BI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE 



DEVOTED TO THE STUDY AND PROTECTION OF BIRDS 



Official Organ of The Audubon Societies 



Vol. XVII January— February, 1915 No. 1 



Bird -Life in Southern Illinois 

 II. Larchmound: A Naturalist's Diary 



By ROBERT RIDGWAY 



WHEN it became evident that Bird Haven was impossible for sum- 

 mer residence, another place was purchased. Larchmound* 

 appealed to us at first sight on account of its many fine trees: 

 two European larches, a ponderosa pine, a white pine of exceptional symmetry, 

 three hemlocks, two Norway spruces, many large red cedars, a magnificent 

 silver maple, two boundary rows of large red maples, and others, planted more 

 than fifty years ago; besides a few examples of the original growth, among 

 them seven persimmon trees ranging in height from sixty to eighty feet, a 

 splendid pin oak nearly eleven feet in circumference and at least ninety feet 

 high, a spreading and very fruitful mulberry, a large wild cherry, several hand- 

 some shellbark hickories, and two elms, one of which has a spread of top meas- 

 uring one hundred and ten feet. 



Although located within the town limits, Larchmound is so near the cor- 

 poration line as to be practically suburban, its eight acres of area occupying 

 much of the greater part of a rectangle bounded by a street along each of its 

 four sides. A small piece of woodland occupies a little more than one and a 

 half acres at one end, the trees being mostly laurel oak (Quercus imbricaria) , 

 hickories (five species), white ash, wild cherry, persimmon, sassafras, white 

 elm, white oak, and a few others, named nearly in the order of their relative 

 abundance. The undergrowth is very dense, affording an excellent covert 

 for such birds as the Cardinal, Towhee, Catbird, Brown Thrasher, and others 

 of like habits. About two acres are comprised in an open field (now sown 



*So named by the previous owners, in courtesy to whom the title is retained. There are 

 two fine European larch trees standing near the house, but it requires considerable imagina- 

 tion to discover any mound. The original name of the locality was Persimmon Hill, the site 

 having been occupied, in part, by a grove of persimmon trees, of which several fine specimens 

 remain; but, again, the 'hill' is only imaginary. The explanation is that here, in a nearly 

 level country, the least irregularity of surface is magnified by comparison; as it is in southern 

 Florida, where occasional banks three or four feet high along the lower Kissimmee River are 

 in local nomenclature, called bluffs! 



