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 
(ved-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 
