150 WiDMANN, ^ Visit to Audubon's Birthplace. f i^prU 



A VISIT TO AUDUBON'S BIRTHPLACE. 



BY O, WIDMANN. 



On the afternoon of February 26, 1897, I left New Orleans on 

 the East Louisiana R. R. bound for Mandeville, St. Tammany 

 Co., La. 



In a straight line Mandeville is only twenty-five miles due north 

 of New Orleans, on the opposite side of Lake Pontchartrain, but 

 by rail the distance is nearly twice as great. The road follows the 

 lake shore through salt water marshes to a point where the lake is 

 only five miles wide, which it crosses on a trestle to the north 

 shore. From there it goes through pine flats north to Pearl River 

 and thence west to the little town of Mandeville, a fashionable 

 bathing place and a frequented summer resort for the inhabitants of 

 the Crescent City. In summer a steamboat line connects the two 

 places, with Milneburg, a suburb of New Orleans, as the starting 

 point. 



On the day I left New Orleans the gardens were full of flowers, 

 and in the outskirts a variety of wild flowers were in bloom. Wil- 

 lows and cypresses were covered with young green, and sycamores, 

 sweet gum and others were opening their leaf-buds. On the Mis- 

 sissippi River hundreds of Gulls, Herring and Ring-billed, mostly 

 the latter, were flying up and down and among the numerous ships 

 in the harbor. In the region of the stockyards and abattoirs 

 groups of Black and Turkey Vultures were alighting at the water's 

 edge or soaring in the air above. Looking over the vast cane 

 fields on the other side of the river a faint cloud of White-bellied 

 Swallows could be seen melting into the gray of the horizon. 



In the outskirts, a troop of about a hundred Cowbirds was at- 

 tending a herd of cattle, resting under a huge oak tree, and on 

 the close-cut sward of a meadow an equally large" number of Pipits 

 were busily engaged in gathering the necessary means of suste- 

 nance for their slender little bodies. Audubon and others were 

 right in surnaming him hidoviciajius ; he is one of the most con- 

 spicuous winter birds of Louisiana. 



In the marsh a number of Hawks were seen from the car win- 



