The Heart of the New Jersey Pine Barrens 



BY HERBERT L. COGGINS 



As the scientific ornithologist might readily conceive, a forced 

 march, even of six days, across the New Jersey "Barrens" is 

 not likely to yield notes of any great value to the science of 

 ornithology. When, therefore, the writer was asked to give an 

 account of himself and of the others who made the aforesaid 

 trip, his reluctance in complying was due less to his extreme 

 modesty than to the fact that there really seemed so little to say 

 relative to bird life. 



Our plan of travel as outlined was to start from the town of 

 Medford, situated just on the edge of the barren region in Bur- 

 lington County, New Jersey, and work our way east, stopping 

 at such points along the route as might be desirable, with the 

 ultimate purpose of investigating that particularly interesting 

 portion of the Barrens known as the "plains." With this in 

 view, Witmer Stone, J. A. G. Rehn, and the writer, accom- 

 panied by a horse and wagon bearing a generous load of provis- 

 ions and the paraphernalia common to the collector, started forth 

 from Medford on June 17, 1901. 



In commenting upon our outfit we could not feel justified in 

 omitting our mosquito armor, a very admirable apparatus, which 

 although distinctly a failure as a means of protection, neverthe- 

 less proved of undoubted service in the capturing of tadpoles 

 and many varieties of insects. 



Our camp on the first night was pitched on the edge of the 

 Batsto river, which is in reaUty a small creek draining the sur- 

 rounding bogs. To some of us whose previous camping expe- 

 rience had been Umited, the first night on the Jersey Barrens 

 was not one of unwonted luxury, but it was a night long to be 

 remembered. From all sides came the notes of the Whii)-poor- 

 wills so close at hand as to be fully distinguishable above the 



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