In the Haunts of the White-Throated Sparrow 



{Zonotrichia albicottii) 



By H. Nehrling 



FEW miles to the west of where I spent my boyhood days the 

 great Sheboygan marsh stretches out over an area of several thou- 

 sand acres. In those days — in the Fifties of the last century — 

 this part of Wisconsin was only thinly settled, and bears, wolves, 

 lynxes and foxes found a safe retreat in the fastnesses of almost impenetrable 

 evero-reen thickets. The outlet of beautiful Elkhait Lake, one of the most 

 exquisite sheets of blue water imaginable, and at present a famous summer 

 resort, passes through this swamp, forming the Sheboygan River, which 

 pushes its tortuous course through white cedar and tamarack swamps, and 

 magnificent woods of white pines, sugar maples, beeches, birches and lindens, 

 emptying its water into Lake Michigan at Sheboygan. 



The entire region is very picturesque. In the vicinity of Elkhart Lake 

 it is very hilly, full of glades and glens and very rich in murmuring springs 

 and prattling brooks. In years gone by the white pine, the sugar maple, 

 the beech, birch and linden, with a few scattered butternut trees and hick- 

 ories constituted the predominating forest growth. The hillsides are covered 

 in many places with dense red cedars, juniper-bushes, white-thorns, stag's 

 horn sumach, wild crab and wild plum trees. The marsh itself is densely 

 overgrown with a second growth of white cedars and tamaracks, all the tall 

 specimens which made such a fine and lasting impression in the days of my 

 youth having been cut down for fence posts and telegraph poles. 



In addition to these species we find numerous single specimens and 

 groups of black-spruce, alder and elder bushes, ashes, willows, dog*wood, 

 viburnum, dense upright honeysuckle {Lonicera oblongifolia, L. parviflora 

 var. Douglasit) and many others. The deep mucky soil is always moist 

 and the growth of touch-me-nots {Impatiens fulva), of Indian snuff (Helen- 

 ium autumnale\ of cow-parsnip {Heracleum lanatuni) and of dense masses 

 of nettles along the edge of the swamp is very rank. 



Following one of the few old woodsman's roads or some old trail or 

 path leading into the interior we are taken by surprise — we are in a verit- 

 able paradise of the most exquisite and delicate flowers and a wonderfully 



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