38 



THE MUSEUM. 



short description of the chamber, kind- 

 ly given me by C. F. Van Home, who 

 visited the cave in August, 1882, and 

 at various subsequent dates. "No 

 dome or ceihng was visible, the walls 

 on every side being lost from view in 

 the mystic shades above, and resem- 

 bling high pillars with their masses of 

 stalactites. '•■' "'•" - From an ex- 

 treme coiner of the Rotunda an in- 

 clining passage led toward a pond of 

 water about 15 feet in circumference 

 and three feet deep, beyond was solid 

 rock and further progress was impos- 

 sible. Undoubtedly we had arrived at 

 the river Styx and just beyond our 

 sight was the 'dark Plutomian shore.' 

 "■•" ""■ * Nearly the whole floor 

 of the Rotunda was covered with stal- 

 agmites. The columns of stalactites 

 were fluted in fantastic shapes and in 

 some places jutting out resembled high 

 epaulettes." 



The Prothonotary Warbler. 



Sunday, May 24, 1895, was the day 

 we had set to hunt for the nests of the 

 swamp warbler, Prothonotaria citrca. 

 By we I mean Dr. J. R. Maguire and 

 wife and the writer and wife. The lo- 

 cality that we desired to search was a 

 half mile of swamp land lying between 

 Grass and Thompson lake, about eight 

 miles from Lewiston, 111. The doctor 

 is a good Presbyterian, but is so thor- 

 ough a naturalist, that he has no com- 

 punctions of conscience on the subject 

 of collecting birds eggs, shells, o" geo- 

 logical specimens on the Sabbath day. 

 After bendmg over a dentist's chair all 

 the week, he believes' it no sin to get 

 off to the woods on Sunday and revel 

 in the beauties of nature, but he draws 

 the line on a gun. As for the writer, 

 well, he is so agnostic that it does not 

 matter much what he believes. 



After an early dinner we drove to 

 the swamps, arriving about two 

 o'clock. Making our horses safe and 

 comfortable, we at once plunged into 

 the low scraggy growth of willow and 

 ash. There was a plenty of holes in 

 the live trees as well as in the old dead 



snags and stumps to afford nesting 

 places suitable to the wants of the 

 warblers. And they were here in great 

 numbers, their clear whistling notes 

 were to be heard on all sides. The 

 ground was almost dry and had it not 

 been for the tiag and smart weed, the 

 hunting would have been quite easy 

 compared with other seasons when it 

 all had to be done in boats. Never- 

 theless the ladies decided to accom- 

 pany us, and in order to cover the 

 ground in the shortest possible time, 

 we agreed to divide forces, the doctor 

 and wife to hunt down the slough to- 

 wards the head of Thompson, while 

 the writer and wife would hunt up 

 towarfis the foot of Grass lake. The 

 swamp was full of nests of the bronzed 

 grackle, red-wings and doves. Some 

 of the nests of the grackles contained 

 full complements of fresh eggs, while 

 in others were young birds almost 

 ready to fly. We selected a few sets 

 of the finest that we could find and 

 paid no further attention to them dur- 

 ing the rest of the day. We were not 

 out for such common game. It was 

 only a few minutes after we had sepa- 

 rated until I had found my first set of 

 the warblers, and a shout from down 

 the swamp told me that the doctor had 

 also made a find. Mine was a set of 

 six, a good starter, the nest in the 

 cavity of Ja rotten snag about as high 

 as my head, the female flying out al- 

 most in my face when I tapped on the 

 trunk. In less than twenty minutes 

 another set of five was found and a 

 more distant shout from the doctor 

 announced the fact that he also was in 

 luck. The next nest was in a hole on 

 the under side of a tree that had brok- 

 en half off with the top end lying on 

 the ground. This was a set of six. 

 Every fifteen or twenty minutes a nest 

 would be found until we came to the 

 treeless district at the foot of Grass 

 lake. The view here was a vast sea of 

 i^ag and watarpepper, surrounding 

 about thirty acres of open water. The 

 whistling and chattering of the coots, 

 gallinules and dabchicks, was to be 



