SOUTHERN CROWS. 27 



fall heavily, preventing that out-door exercise which 

 I so badly need. The song of the brown thrush and 

 the southern mocking bird are the sounds which are 

 first impressed upon my awakening senses. Mingled 

 with them is the loud "char"-"char" of the zebra 

 woodpecker, Melanerpes carolinus L. Yellowham- 

 mers or flickers are also abundant, and their cackle 

 is heard incessantly ; not "on, the hillsides," as noted 

 by Thoreau, for there are no hills, but seemingly 

 everywhere in the early morn. 



On my way to breakfast I note a gray squirrel, 

 Sciurus carolinensis Gmelin, frisking and jumping 

 along the fence of an unused town lot. It is a third 

 smaller, and has its upper surface more varied with 

 tawny or yellowish brown, than the northern variety, 

 leucotis. This is the only truly arboreal squirrel 

 found near Ormond, and is very common hereabouts 

 according to the statement of mine host. 



A flock of crows numbering a hundred or more 

 settle, as I write, in the pines along the river bank 

 and on the remains of the old pier jutting out into 

 the stream. They utter at intervals a peculiar low, 

 short croak resembling the syllables "kah," "kah." 

 This differs much from the more prolonged, harsher 

 "c-a-w" of their northern brethren. It may be that 

 some fish crows, Corvus ossifragus Wilson, mingle 

 with the common Corvus americanus and utter the 

 short, soft call. It is impossible to determine this 

 without specimens in hand. As the rain begins to 



