I 26 Brewster And Chapman on Birds of the Siixvanee River. [April 



his value in the field, but also to call attention to an inborn love 

 of nature, and especially of bird life, in a man to whom at the age 

 of forty, the word 'ornithology' possessed no meaning. Mr. Du 

 Bose was with us until March 23. 



Ovn- means of transport proving eminently successful deserves 

 some description. It was originally a 'flat' or scow thirty feet 

 in length and eight feet in width, A cabin, seventeen feet in 

 length and divided by partitions into kitchen, berth-room and 

 specimen-room, was placed on this foundation somewhat astein. 



The specimen-room was provided with numerous shelves, as 

 indeed was every available corner, for use in drying specimens 

 and storing the supplies incident to collecting. The bow was 

 protected by an awning, and, serving as dining or work room, 

 proved also an admirable observation j^ost where, while under 

 way, one might prepare specimens and still maintain a constant 

 outlook on the river ahead, or on either shore. A three-mile cur- 

 rent and the use of oars by the men, gave suflicient speed for 

 our purpose, while the three canoes floating astern, aftbrded a 

 more rapid and easy means of reaching a desired point whenever 

 occasion demanded. 



It is not our purpose to give in detail the results of our explo- 

 rations. Beyond ascertaining that the river apparently constitutes 

 one of the highways of migration for Bachman's Warbler {cf. 

 Brewster, Auk, VIII, 1891, p. 149), hitherto unknown from the 

 mainland of Florida, we did not discover any facts of startling 

 importance. It is our object, therefore, to present as briefly as 

 possible the characteristic features of the bird life of the region 

 — an unwritten chapter in the history of the Florida fauna. 



The river averaged from fifty to one hundred yards in width dur- 

 ing the greater pai"t of the voyage and in fact until we had ap- 

 proached to within a few miles of the Gulf. The whole country 

 was heavily and continuously wooded ; the total frontage of the 

 clearings on either shore from Branford to the marshes of the 

 Gulf would not exceed a mile in length. The higher, drier 

 banks supported a heavy 'hummock' growth composed largely of 

 live and water oaks, bay, magnolia, red birch, red maple, 

 sweet gum, and a rather dense undergrowth. Occasionally higher 

 pine-grown bluff's intervened, or, where the shores were lower, 

 great forests of cypresses outlined their delicate, lace-like foliage of 

 softest green against the sky. Frequently, through the action of 



