26 



ORNITHOLOGIST 



[Vol. iS~X. 



Rabl)it. One triumphantly runs off with the 

 tail while the other two tear the body apart. 



Just in front of the band of Coyotes is a 

 group of A\'olverines, those "Indian devils" 

 that are the bane of the trappers of the 

 West. These animals are the most xicious 

 brutes in the whole collection. 



Direcdy in the front of the display are 

 two immense Mountain Lions ([uarreliiii; 

 over the carcass of a Deer that has fallen 

 prey to one of them. The other animal is 

 approaching, with mouth open and ears 

 flat, looking all the world like an immense 

 Cat. The scene is one of the most realistic, 

 and calls for manv exclamations from the 

 visitors. 



Just back, to the south of the fighting 

 I, ions, is a lioness and her two half-grown 

 Cubs. This group simply shows a, part of 

 the family life of the animal. North of the 

 Lioness and her Cubs is a group of se\en 

 Fo.xes, of all the \arieties, one of them being 

 a Silver Fox, the .skin alone of which is 

 valued at $150. 



Near the Fox group are two Ocelots, those 

 beautiful spotted Cats of the southern border, 

 and near them are to be seen a group of 

 Lynxes, arranged in positions that show vari- 

 ous phases in the life of that animal. 



This sketch does not go into the detail of 

 the work that has been expended to prepare 

 this one of the most artistic and scientific 

 exhibits on the ground. A day would be 

 well spent here in the study of the animals 

 and their habits. There is a group which is 

 not in this exhibit, but which will attract 

 more attention than any other group in the 

 building. It is a pair of fighting Bull 

 Moose. These immense animals are strug- 

 gling hard for supremacy, and the details of 

 the work done on the group makes it a 

 masterpiece. This group is so large that it 

 could not be placed in the wing with the 

 other animals, for it would hide too much of 

 the exhibit ; so it is placed separate and 

 stands out in the main building, where it 

 can be viewed from all sides. 



In the Great Dismal Swamp. 



^\'hat ornithologist is there in this country 

 who has not wondered to himself if there did 

 not somewhere in the jungles of this vast peat 

 bog still lurk that prince of Woodjieckers, the 

 Ivory-bill? 



It had long been my desire to make an 

 expedition into this lonely region anil learn 

 for myself if there were not still to be found 

 in the vast wooded tracts specimens of the 

 imperial principalis. 



So while collecting in the eastern ])art of 

 the State last summer, I made it convenient to 

 stop for a couple of weeks near the Dismal 

 Swamp. From Sunsbury, Gates County, as 

 a radiating point, I visited several of the 

 neighboring swamps, but found no signs of 

 the object of my search. On the morning of 

 the last day in May, arrangements having 

 been made, we were off for the big swamp. 

 The Dismal Swamp I What intelligent per- 

 son does not think with interest of these 

 words, of which the poet Moore spoke in his 

 " Lake of the Dismal Swamp." Of those wild 

 morasses of which Harriet Beecher Stowe 

 wrote in her wonderful " Tale of the Dismal 

 Swamp," and whose very name implies that, 

 of all other swamps, this one is the most 

 lonely and desolate. Our course for six miles 

 lay along a sandy road through the pine woods 

 before the canal was reached, which runs 

 eastward twelve miles into the very heart of 

 the swamp. Arriving at the canal, our guns 

 and provisions were at once transferred from 

 the cart in which we had come, to our boat, 

 which lay tied up under the bank. .\ few 

 strokes of the paddle and we had left the pines 

 and were passing under the overhanging 

 bough of the oak and bay, whose limbs, span- 

 ning the twenty-foot stream, formed a com- 

 plete arch overhead. In the semi-darkness of 

 this almost subterranean canal we pushed on. 



In the prow of the boat sat Gaston, with 

 his rifle across his knees, ready to bring down 

 the bear which he verily believed he should 

 see before the first half mile should have been 



