ON THE UPPER ST. JOHN'S. 147 



deck to the other, as the captain shouted 

 and pointed. One, he told us, was thirteen 

 feet long, the largest in the river. Each 

 appeared to have its own well-worn sunning- 

 spot, and all, I believe, kept their places, as 

 if the passing of the big steamer almost 

 too big for the river at some of the sharper 

 turns had come to seem a commonplace 

 event. Herons in the usual variety were 

 present, with ospreys, an eagle, kingfishers, 

 ground doves, Carolina doves, blackbirds 

 (red-wings and boat-tails), tree swallows, 

 purple martins, and a single wild turkey, the 

 first one I had ever seen. It was near the 

 bank of the river, on a bushy prairie, fully 

 exposed, and crouched as the steamer passed. 

 For a Massachusetts ornithologist the mere 

 sight of such a bird was enough to make a 

 pretty good Thanksgiving Day. Blue yel- 

 low-backed warblers were singing here and 

 there, and I retain a particular remembrance 

 of one bluebird that warbled to us from the 

 pine-woods. The captain told me, some- 

 what to my surprise, that he had seen two 

 flocks of paroquets during the winter (they 

 had been very abundant along the river 

 within his time, he said), but for me there 



