£be umarbler 17 



smaller song birds, their nest robbing propensities being particularly objec- 

 tionable. They torment all the smaller birds and drive them away and their 

 noisy call-notes are constantly heard. They are especially fond of the 

 Japanese persimmons — " a fruit fit for the gods " — and of figs. 



Early in September our glorious Magnolia grandifiora begins to ripen its 

 aromatic fruit in abundance. At that time the garden fairly swarms with 

 birds, the most abundant being the Blue Jays, Red-cockaded Woodpeckers, 

 Red-headed Woodpeckers and Fish Crows. Allen's Towhees (White-eyed 

 Towhees), Mockingbirds, Catbirds and Thrashers are also exceedingly fond 

 of the berries. The Red-cockaded Woodpecker is a great fruit-eater and a 

 most notorious nest robber, entering even the chicken houses for eggs. In 

 its ways it is very noisy, stealthy and quarrelsome. The Red-headed Wood- 

 pecker and the Flicker are noble birds compared with this species, an abun- 

 dant resident in this locality. 



The Sparrow family is poorly represented in this part of the peninsula. 

 Only the beautiful Cardinal Redbird can be called abundant wherever it 

 finds the locality congenial. Dense orange trees, magnolias, palms, cypress- 

 es, bamboos, tangled thickets of climbing plants, Cherokee or Macartney 

 rose hedges are its favorite abode. It is now so common in my garden that 

 four or five and often even as many as a dozen are seen together. They 

 fearlessly approach the house and hop around on the veranda. Though not 

 singing during the autumn months their bright red colors in the dense dark 

 evergreen magnolias or on the cypresses have a very charming effect. An 

 English lady friend of mine has called the Cardinal the bird of " fairyland " 

 and the fancy caladium the plant of " fairyland " — they are indeed "'dream- 

 land beauties." 



The Song Sparrow arrives late in October. It finds a congenial home 

 in the dense shrubbery near the lake. Both the Field Sparrow and Chip- 

 ping Sparrow are very abundant in the orange grove from the middle of 

 October to March. They find an abundant supply of crab grass seeds on the 

 ground, and during the night and in cold weather the orange trees offer 

 them excellent shelter. The Vesper Sparrow and the Lark Sparrow are 

 also quite abundant in the orange groves, while several other species and 

 the Meadow Lark prefer the flat woods for an abode. 



The white-eyed Towhee, originally a bird of the so-called scrub, nested 

 during the last season in the adjoining woodlands. The whole familv now 

 occupies the garden for a rambling ground. By the middle of October the 

 common Towhee arrives from the North. Both are frequentlv seen togeth- 

 er. They are scratching like chickens in the old half-rotten leaves under- 

 neath the evergreens. The very characteristic " che-wink " is frequently 

 heard at present. 



The Robin, the American Goldfinch and the Bluebird are very com- 



