Massachusetts Audubon Society 3 



EARLY BIRDS IN THE SOUTHLAND 



I had the good fortune to spend a month this spring in southern 

 Georgia, about ten miles from the Florida line. My trip might be called 

 a "bird pilgrimage"; for I Avent south for the purpose of banding birds 

 in place of Mr. S. Prentiss Baldwin, and practically all the time not taken 

 up by this occupation was spent in the woods and fields with our feathered 

 friends. 



Of the results of my banding operations, I can give only a summary 

 here: I banded 313, and took 43 "returns," birds banded in previous years 

 that came back to the traps this spring; these 356 birds "repeated" 1448 

 limes, that is, re-entered the traps after their original appearance, making 

 a total of 1804 birds handled in 30 days. 



My bird observations can be divided into two categories: birds that 

 are never seen in Massachusetts, or at best are not common here, many of 

 them new to me; and birds that are regular, even common residents or 

 migrants here, which I saw in the South several weeks earlier than they 

 arrive in Massachusetts. 



Many birds that were common during my stay in the South sang but 

 little or not at all. Some, like the ruby-crowned kinglets, sang frequently 

 during the last week or two, but were silent during the first half of the 

 month. But this does not mean that bird-songs were scarce or wanting; 

 for with thrashers, mockingbirds, blue jays and cardinals common, to 

 mention only a few conspicuous examples, the woods rang with music 

 from early morn till late at night, and even during the night; for the 

 mockers often sing then, especially when the moon is shining. 



A complete account of my experiences would be impossible here; I 

 can give only the merest sketch, mentioning but a few of the many in- 

 teresting birds. 



Two birds stand out in my memory as the best finds: egrets and wild 

 turkeys. Egrets, which were almost exterminated to satisfy the desire of 

 cruel women for their plumes, are very slowly increasing in number. I 

 saw three together in Lake Imonia, Florida, and one a few miles from 

 there in a marsh. I was able to approach to within a hundred feet or 

 so of this one, and saw the beautiful plumes that have been the source 

 of so much trouble to his race. I am told by a friend who spent the 

 winter in Florida that even now these birds are being hunted for their 

 feathers. 



Wild turkeys are said to be fairly plentiful on the Northern-owned 

 plantations, which are all "posted land." I saw three on a plantation of 

 seventeen thousand acres, and superb birds they were. 



Pied-billed grebes were common on the ponds. I had never before 

 seen them with the black band across the bill that gives them their name; 

 for I was familiar with them only in the fall and winter plumage. 



Turkey vultures are very numerous. Black vultures are more common 

 near the coast than in the interior, but I saw a few. 



A mourning dove is always a treat in Massachusetts. But down South 

 the cooing of these beautiful birds was one of the first sounds to call 

 me from bed in the morning, and I found them numerous and very tame 

 wherever I went. On one day I saw as many as tw^o hundred and fifty 

 of them. Ground doves were less plentiful; they frequent lower land. 



