456 General Notes. [^^\^ 



These species had no charm for us that day for as our boat skirted the 

 fringe of trees near shore, nearly every lower branch contained one or 

 more nests of the Acadian Flycatcher and Parula Warbler, sometimes 

 two or more nests of each species in one tree. The general run though 

 was a nest of the warbler in the long Spanish moss near the extremity of 

 the limb, while further in toward the trunk and on a small crotch, was that 

 of the flycatcher. We never had to climb the trees for any, there werei 

 plenty within reach from the boat, nor did we examine more than a small 

 portion of the lower end of the lake before we had a sufficiently large series 

 of both species. 



I should have mentioned before that Suffolk and Lake Kilby lie on the 

 outskirts of the famous Dismal Swamp, the juniper trees in both places 

 discoloring the water to a reddish brown, and all of the trees festooned 

 formerly with the beautiful Spanish moss. The juniper water causes 

 a total lack of water-fowl or shore birds. 



In 1895, about May 28, my father and brother paddled from Suffolk 

 down the little canal to Lake Drummond, in the heart of the Dismal 

 Swamp, but found the above species sparingly distributed, and with 

 either well incubated sets of eggs or young. I gave this section little 

 thought imtil the season of 1909, when I suggested to my friend and local 

 bird crank, J. E. Gould of Norfolk, that we take in once more Lake Kilby, 

 promising him sights to open his eyes — for such they were in days of yore. 

 After some little delay and red tape in securing a permit, thanks for which 

 are due to Mr. Gould, we started for Suffolk on the first train the last day 

 of May. Delay in schedule time of arrival of train landed us in Suffolk 

 about nine a. m., while another fifteen or twenty minutes were consumed 

 while walking to the lake. What a change a lapse of "sixteen years had 

 wrought. A new and handsome pump house with filtering tank buildings 

 surrounded by well kept lawns greeted us at the old dam, but greater 

 changes were yet in store for me. After changing our clothes for egg 

 collector's regimentals and securing the still used old-time double-ended 

 bateau, we made haste to make up for lost time. We commenced at the 

 lower end with a systematic search of the trees in the lake and those bor- 

 dering it. We had n't gone many turns of its broken shore line before it 

 became apparent to me that it was "Happy days gone by," and while 

 the same trees were still there, also many of the old stumps, the Spanish 

 moss as well as the birds were lacking, almost a total absence of 'vires- 

 cens' and 'americana.' Though we worked the whole shore line thor- 

 oughly, and special attention was given the heads of the ravines where 

 the moss used to be thickest, only about a dozen trees had any moss on 

 them. The total count of nests were — ^ 'virescens,' two, one just 

 finished, the other a set of two eggs; 'americana,' six, four nests just 

 completed, a set of two, and one set of three eggs. We ate our lunch in 

 disgust, for the single pair of Prothonotary Warblers seen had also baffled 

 our prying eyes. This year I again resolved to visit the lake, but at a 

 later date, hoping against hope things would be changed. I spent the 



