Vol. XIX 

 1902 



1 Daniel, Summer Birds of the Great Dismal Svjamp. I^ 



that they have to be trimmed to avoid accidental hanging while 

 climbing the wires of their cage, like diminutive parrots. 



The mysteries of nest building, housekeeping and the cares of 

 nidification, are mysteries still. In the spring of 1900 the birds 

 showed no signs of mating, and it was ascribed to their new sur- 

 roundings. But during the last week of February, 1 901, the female 

 wished to go to housekeeping and materials were given them, 

 fine twigs, fine birch bark and a little Usnea moss. But the male 

 bird treated his mate with disdain, quarreling with her and driving 

 her from perch to perch. Whether he resented the matchmaking 

 because it was ' Hobson's choice,' or remembered the soft, sweet 

 voice of the former partner of his joys and sorrow s, the only " Mrs. 

 Leucoptera " whom he had sworn to love and cherish till death 

 part, and was loyal, I know not. Perhaps it was in grief, a 

 memory of the blissful days in that far off northern home, among 

 " The murmuring pines and the hemlocks, bearded with moss." 

 Perhaps his tale of love was ended, " in Acadie, home of the 

 happy." 



SUMMER BIRDS OF THE GREAT DISMAL SWAMP. 



BY JOHN W. DANIEL, JR. 



During the middle of June, 1897, the writer, in company with 

 Mr. William Palmer and Mr. Paul Bartsch, spent a week collect- 

 ing birds in the Lake Drummond region of the Great Dismal 

 Swamp. As is well known, this great morass occupies a billowy 

 plain, some forty miles long by twenty-five miles across, extending 

 from Suffolk, Va., to Albemarle Sound, N. C. Its entire western 

 boundary is determined by a sharply defined escarpment, formed 

 by the sea when the continent was about twenty-eight feet below 

 its present level. 



Its eastern boundary is marked by a series of low elevations, 

 dune-like in nature, extending from Norfolk, Va., to Elizabeth 

 City, N. C. The character of the swamp land is continuously 

 undulating, the elevations rising and falling at slight intervals. 



