THE OOLOGIST 



lit 



the wild and the lure of the swamp 

 land, and of going again to the deep 

 dark fens and reedy haunts of the 

 great Dismal, when he expressed a 

 desire to go also. I invited him to 

 join me on my next trip which in- 

 vitation he accepted. While I was at 

 Lynchburg, the next spring there 

 came a letter from the esteemed doc- 

 tor to the effect he through the first 

 week in May a good time to start. 

 Most of the nesting Warblers would 

 have fresh sets at that time or would 

 be seen carrying nesting material and 

 it would be cooler then than later on, 

 when the black fly and mosquito 

 season would be in evidence and prove 

 worrisome or make life a burden. So 

 we decided to start the first week in 

 May. 



We busied ourselves with what 

 necessary equipment we should take 

 and the matter of a guide, boat and 

 stopping place. I wrote my friend, 

 Alphonse Roysten, an excellent gentle- 

 man and the best swamp guide extant, 

 whose services I had been fortunate 

 in securing on the two previous trips. 

 He said he would be on the lookout for 

 us and would see to a boat and cook- 

 ing equipment and the cabin and have 

 everything in readiness for a start on 

 our arrival. I would heartily recom- 

 ment Roysten to any party going to 

 the Lake Drummond region of the 

 great Dismal as one thoroughly 

 familiar with the country, conditions, 

 birds and animals found there abouts; 

 but in a letter received from him this 

 week he states that he has given up 

 swamping and gone to some other kind 

 of work. He inquired about Dr. Ralph 

 and said that he feared the doctor had 

 gone to the great unknowable and un- 

 thinkable, which fact strangely enough 

 proved to be true, although we had 

 not learned of his sad death. 



On my first trip to the Great Dismal, 

 I was accompanied by two Smithson- 



ian ornithologists, Mr. Paul Bartsoh 

 and that oracle of Virginia Ornithol- 

 ogy, Mr. William Palmer. Mr. Palmer 

 introduced me to Roysten, whose house 

 we stopped at. We had a party of six 

 and the novelty of such a trip has 

 stuck in my memory with great evi- 

 dence. The birds which I observed 

 on this trip I reported on in an article 

 in the "Auk" in the article of "Summer 

 Birds of the Great Dismal Swamp." 

 Bartsch also write an account which 

 appeared in the Osprey. I have re- 

 cently prepared a paper, the result of 

 the three trips as regards Mammals 

 for the American Society of Mam- 

 malogists (Washington, D. C.) Bulletin 

 in which it will shortly appear I trust, 

 and named several new mammals in- 

 cluding a new species of Marsh Hare, 

 Mole and Permyscus, one Royster in 

 honor of Royster and the rabbit. 



In all aspects the Great Dismal 

 Swamp is of peculiar and particular 

 interest to the naturalist and holds an 

 infatuation and lure that no locality 

 with which I am familiar parallels. 

 The great gaunt, gnarled giants of 

 cypress; the deep, dark, damp, shaded 

 forest of black gum, so densely hung 

 with heavy foliage that no light pene- 

 trated through the leafy verdue above, 

 solitary and silent, secluded and wild 

 grown with banks of beautiful ferns 

 (Royal and others of great size), and 

 with fern covered logs, stretches of 

 can and sphagnum covered ditches of 

 chocolate or coffee colored water in 

 which there are a few fish and in 

 which the overhanging trees are 

 mirrored like a looking glass. The 

 beautiful Lake Drummond, a great 

 great sheet of water, "set like an opal, 

 with margins green, born to shine un- 

 eeen," the beautiful balsam trees in 

 the tops of which as in others, sings 

 the Golden swamps or Prothonotary 

 Warbler, all day long. It's lovely gol- 

 den and white plumage glowing like 



