308 WipMaAnn, Home of Bachman’s Warbler. jay 
margin of black, a yellow chin and yellow orbital region, in which 
the dark eye appears in sharp contour. 
All three eggs are perfectly white and unspotted, and resemble in 
color, shape and size those of the Short-billed Marsh Wren. The 
nest was made of leaves and grass blades, lined with a peculiar 
black rootlet ; it was tied very slightly to a vertical blackberry vine 
of fresh growth and rested lightly on another, which crossed the 
former at a nearly right angle. From above it was entirely 
hidden by branchlets of latest growth, and the hand could not 
have been inserted without at first cutting several vines, overlying 
it in different directions. It was two feet from the ground, and 
to reach the place it was necessary to go through pools of water 
and over heaps of fallen trees and brush. Such sheltered places 
are probably chosen to avoid the danger of being trampled down 
by hogs and cattle, roving in these woods. 
There is little danger from egg-collectors; even the natives are 
seldom seen entering these thickets after the first of May, not so 
much for fear of thorns and mosquitos or poisonous Snakes, but 
for fear of that greatest curse of these beautiful forests, the ticks, 
of which they distinguish three kinds: the ordinary wood tick, a 
comparatively harmless creature, as it is easily picked off before 
great damage is done; the seed tick, which is already more to be 
dreaded because of its smaller size; but the worst of all is the 
jigger or chigger, which is so small as to be hardly seen with the 
naked eye until it has entered the skin where it causes restless 
nights and suffering for weeks. This worthy trio forms a society 
for the protection of birds, more powerful than the best state laws. 
There is probably no region in the whole United States so rich 
in bird life as those islands, not only in the large number of 
species, but, still more, in the number of individuals. Some 
of the choicest beauties, such as Prothonotary, Hoodéd and 
Kentucky Warblers are not only present, but we hear or see 
them at almost every step. On a sultry day in May the music 
from so many throats of summer sojourners is grand and impres- 
sive, but it is made still more imposing and perplexing by the 
musical efforts of twenty and odd different species of transients, 
and by the noisy fledgelings of the first brood of permanent 
residents. 
