14 Gbe Warbler 



heard this year on the morning of October n, announcing its arrival by its 

 characteristic plaintive pewee-pewee-pewait. Its appearance is almost al- 

 ways a certain indication of cold weather, and so it was this season. The 

 next morning the first cool weather set in, lasting for about three days. It 

 leaves again for its Northern home by the middle of March. 



The last calls of the Chuck-will's-widow are usually heard during the 

 first days of September and we do not hear these very pleasant, very com- 

 mon and characteristic notes again until the middle of March. The Chuck- 

 will's-widow is very abundant in my garden and its vicinity and we hear 

 them throughout the spring and the summer months almost constantly as 

 long as the night lasts. Often three and four are heard at the same time 

 but usually one is calling and the other answering. The birds do not leave 

 until October has fairly begun. Chapman's Hawk, a common summer 

 resident, leaves for the South early in September. 



Quails are perfectly at home in my garden, large coveys of them being 

 frequently seen. They are so tame that they fearlessly appear near the 

 windows of my study to pick up seeds. At present (Oct. 20) the partridge 

 pea (Cassia chamcecristatd) and the beggar weed {Desmodium toriuosuni) ripen their 

 seeds abundantly, the first-named in waste places, the other one in orange 

 groves, and the Quails soon become very fat on this food. Though the 

 hunting season for Quails does not open until November 1, many of them 

 are shot during the months of September and October, and in spite of the 

 game laws and the excellent work done by the Audubon Society many hun- 

 dreds are trapped just now by unscrupulous persons. In calling the atten- 

 tion to the law and its violations they usually say that nobody can interfere 

 with their doings within their own premises. This is a weak point in our 

 game laws, making it almost valueless. The same holds true of our laws 

 for the protection of song birds. I know a certain vineyardist whose boys 

 annually kill hundreds, no thousands, of Mockingbirds, Thrashers and other 

 small birds with their air guns. Nobody seems to interfere with this van- 

 dalism. Birds ought to be regarded as common property and nobody should 

 have a right to kill them on his own place when and wherever he likes. 

 The Mourning Dove, years ago a very common bird, is almost exterminated 

 in our orange groves. I have only seen one pair last summer, and even 

 this was killed while the young were in the nest. The number of' these 

 birds are so decimated that rarely one is seen. The Northern birds arrive 

 in flocks of a few to several hundred during the month of October. They 

 are exceedingly abundant in the pine woods, where they feed mainly upon 

 the seeds of the partridge pea and later on those of the pine. 



From April to late in September we hear the melancholic cooing of the 

 pretty little Ground Dove (here invariably called the " Mourning Dove ") on 

 every bright and warm morning and during the heat of the day. Like the 



