214 WALKS ABOUT TALLAHASSEE. 



birds of his species almost daily, but always 

 in hard wood trees, and silent. Henceforth, 

 as long as I remained in Florida, they were 

 invariably in pines, their summer quar- 

 ters, and in free song. Their plumage is 

 of the neatest and most exquisite ; few, even 

 among warblers, surpass them in that re- 

 gard: black and white (reminding one of 

 the black-and-white creeper, which they 

 resemble also in their feeding habits), with 

 a splendid yellow gorget. Myrtle warblers 

 (yellow-rumps) were still here (the penin- 

 sula is alive with them in the winter), and a 

 ruby-crowned kinglet mingled its lovely 

 voice with the simple trills of pine warblers, 

 while out of a dense low treetop some invis- 

 ible singer was pouring a stream of fine-spun 

 melody. It should have been a house wren, 

 I thought (another was singing close by), 

 only its tune was several times too long. 



At least four of my longer excursions into 

 the surrounding country (long, not intrinsi- 

 cally, but by reason of the heat) were made 

 with a view to possible ivory-billed wood- 

 peckers. Just out of the town northward, 

 beyond what appeared to be the court end of 

 Marion Street, the principal business street 



