RIDGWAY ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 27 



more, Michaux's oak and white elm, some of the latter being quite 

 large and of the graceful dome-shaped type. Many of these trees, 

 especially the smaller ones, are densely canopied by wild grape 

 vines. This open pasture land is divided into what are locally 

 termed the "upper" and "lower commons," by an exceedingly 

 crooked natural ditch known as " the slough," cut deeply into the 

 earth, or down to low-water level of the river, here more than 

 twenty feet below the general surface. 



A portion of this so-called slough is almost beneath one's feet 

 when observed from the gracefully rounded, though steep, front of 

 the bluff, and from the same point of view may be seen the broad 

 mouth of White River, gleaming between the solid walls of forest, 

 which, standing flush with the bank, lines almost continuously the 

 opposite shore; while about a mile below, the Patoka, a much 

 smaller stream, enters the Wabash. 



The Illinois shore is irregularly fringed with trees, some of 

 them good-sized elms, cottonwoods, sycamores, and silver maples, 

 while among them stand ware-houses, saw-mills, and other belong- 

 ings of a river town. 



The " commons " are succeeded both above and below by cul- 

 tivated fields, and these in turn by woods, which a comparatively 

 few years ago were in an almost primitive condition, but which of 

 late years have been much thinned out by the clearing of consider- 

 able areas and the destruction for saw-logs of the best trees upon 

 the remaining portions. On the opposite side of the town, meadows 

 of grass or clover, and fields of wheat or corn alternate with open 

 groves and bits of enclosed woodland, consisting (as does the sylva 

 of the entire country) of various hard-woods; while the town itself 

 is embowered in a wealth of foliage — orchards and shade trees, 

 with gardens and shrubbery in profusion. 



Within the town limits were formerly several small, though 

 secluded marshes, in which dwelt various water birds and other 

 species affecting such localities, but these, with one or two excep- 

 tions, have since been drained. 



The total number of species positively identified to date as 

 found at one time or another within one mile of the center of the 

 town is 281, some of them being, as a matter of course, rare, irreg- 

 ular, or even accidental in their occurrence. Of this number 73 

 species are transient, passing through in Spring and Fall; 74 are 

 permanent residents, or may occur at any season of the year; 86 

 appear only in Summer, while 48 are present only in Winter. The 



