THE AUK: 



A QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF 

 ORNITHOLOGY. 



Vol. xxxii. January, 1915. No. 1. 



ON THE TRAIL OF THE IVORY-BILL. 



BY FREDERIC H. KENNARD. 



Plates I-III. 



After years of looking forward to a hunting trip in the Florida 

 Big Cypress Swamp, my hopes seemed about to be realized when 

 on the 14th of February, 1914, the teamster, Peter Hogan, started 

 from Fort Myers with our outfit, in a wagon very much like an old- 

 fashioned prairie schooner, hauled by two good looking yoke of 

 oxen; while my guide, Tom Hand, and I were to follow the next 

 day in an automobile; it being our intention to catch up before 

 Peter reached the Big Cypress, and leaving the machine at its edge, 

 go on with him. 



The wagon was a stout, broad tired affair, with top like a prairie 

 schooner, and easily held our outfit. We used oxen because, though 

 slow, they could with their spreading toes, pull a wagon through 

 places where horses and mules would be sure to bog down. 



Tom and I started the next day soon after daylight, for Immo- 

 kalee, about thirty-two miles southeast of Fort Myers, running 

 through rather uninteresting open pine woods for almost the entire 

 distance. We bogged down just south of Immokalee, had to cut 

 several trees to use as levers, and finally after building a miniature 

 corduroy road, managed to pry the machine out of the mud and 

 caught up with Peter about eight miles further south, where we 

 camped for the night. 



When leaving Fort Myers in the morning, we saw a few Florida 

 Grackles fussing about the orange trees in front of the hotel. A 



