E f OOLOGIS 



1^. 



Vol.VI, 



ALBION, N. Y., FEB., 1889. 



No. 2 



A Red-headed Family. 



••('e tiuylv I ken. fe'tiuj^ly ssli. ' said my 

 Ciacker host, taking' <lo\vu his louj^ tiiiit-loik 

 ritlc froui over the caMn duor aud shaping | 

 his fiow7.y head through the suspension- 1 

 stnip of his powder-horn ond bullet- pouch. | 

 "Ce'tingly, seh, I ken i-yarry ye ter Avha' | 

 tlieni airbinls had their iiestis las' yer. ' 



I had i^assed the night in the cabin, aud 

 uow as I recall the experience to mind, 

 thfve conies the grateful fragrance of pine 

 woo.l to emphasize the memory. Corn 

 ••pones" and broiled chicken, fried bacon 

 and sweet potatoes, strong coffee and scram- 

 bled eggs (a breakfast, indeed, to half 

 persuade one that a ('ra(;ker is a bon rivant) 

 had just been eaten. I was standing out- 

 side the cabin on the i-ude door-step. Far 

 off through the thin p ne woods to the east- 

 ward, where the sun was beginning to flash, 

 a herd of "sci'ub" cattle were f< rmed into a 

 wide skirmish line of browsers, led by an 

 old cow, whose melancholy bell clanged in 

 time to her desultory movements. Near 

 by, to the westward, lay one of those great 

 gloomy swamp«, so common in Southeastern 

 freorgia. sorepellant and yet so fascinating, 

 so fidl of interest to the naturalist, and yet 

 so little explored. The perfume of yellow 

 jasmine was in the air, along with those 

 indescribable woodsy odors which almost 

 evade the sense of smelJ, and j'et so pleas- 

 ingly impress it. A rivulet, slow, narrow 

 and deep, passed near the front of the cabin 

 with a faint, dreamy murmur aud crept 

 darkling into the swamp between dense 

 luakes <;f cane and bay-bu^his. 



•'Ye-as, seh, I ken mek er bee-line to that 

 air ole pine snag. Hit taint more'n half er 

 mile cut yender," continued my host aud 

 vohinteer guide, as we climl)ed the little 

 wormfence that inclosed the house; ,,bnt I 

 alius called 'em air birds woodcocks: didn't 

 know at they bed any other name; alius 

 thut "at a Peckwood wer' a leetle, tinty, 

 stripedy feller: never liyeard or thoni air b-g 



(lie woodcocks a bein' called Peckwoods. "' 



He led and I folic »wed into the damp, 

 moss-scented shadows of the swamp, under 

 cypress and live-njik and through slender 

 fringes of cane. We floundered across the 

 coffee-colored stream, the water cooling my 

 India-ruliber wading-boots above the kiues, 

 climbed over great walls of fallen tree-boles, 

 crept under low-hanging festoons of wild 

 vines, iind at length f(mnd oni-selves wading 

 rather more than ankle-deep in one of those 

 shallow cypress lakes of which the larger 

 part of the Okefenokee region is formed . 

 I thought it a very long half-mile before we 

 reached a small tussock whereon grew, in 

 the midst of a dense nnderl>in-;h thicket, 

 some enormous pine trees. 



"Ther','' said the guide, "thet air snag aJr 

 the one Sorter outer tother side yell see 

 the hole, bout twenty foo' up. Kem vfr, 

 111 show hit ter ye. ' ' 



The "snag" was a stump some fifty ftet 

 tall, larkless, smooth, almost as white rs 

 chalk, the decaying remnant of what had 

 once been the grandest pine on tl.e tussock. 



"Hello, yer' I Hit's ben to work son e 

 more since I wer' yer' las' time. Hit air 

 done dng another hole!" 



As he sj'oke he pointed indicatively, with 

 his long, knotty fore-finger. I looked and 

 saw two large round cavities, not nnlike im- 

 mense auger-holes, rnnning darkly into the 

 polished surface of the stump, one about 

 six feet below the other, the l(,wer twenty- 

 five feet above the ground, Surely it was 

 no very striking picture, this tare, weather- 

 whitened column, with its splintered top 

 antl its two orifices, and yet I do not think 

 it was a weakness for me to feel a thrill of 

 eleli.ht as I gazed at it. How long anil 

 how diligently I hael sought the home of 

 CnnijeiJiiliis priDcipaliii, {he great king of 

 the red-headed family, and at last I stcod 

 before its door! 



At my request, the kind C) acker now left 

 me alone (o prosecute my obseivaticns, 



••I>ein ter dinneir'' he impiired as he 



