142 



THE OOLOGIST. 



was so warm and the water did not 

 feel so very cold to the hand. One 

 pluQge was enough to convince me 

 that it was rather too early in the sea- 

 sou for comfort and I lost no time in 

 getting out and dressed again. 



After this we started to walk over the 

 hills to another small lake, not, howev- 

 er, before my companion hadkilled three 

 Blue-winged Teal at one shot, in a 

 small inlet. Go the hills west oE the 

 lake I took a set of three beautiful 

 spotted eggs of the Marsh Hawk from 

 a nest on the ground, securing the fe- 

 male bird. On arriving at the lake I 

 sat down to write down some notes 

 and watch some small birds, while my 

 companion scoured around the lake, 

 securing another Teal. The Redpoll 

 Warblers [Dendroica palmarum) were 

 quite abundant among the low bushes 

 and on the ground. 



Oq our return trip I shot a Redpoll 

 Warbler and a female Virginia Rail. 

 It was dark when we reached home 

 and though I had "that tired feeling" 

 before I got all my birds skinned that 

 night, I felt myself amply repaid for 

 my trip, beiug successful in securing 

 both specimens and notes, having ob- 

 served the following species: 



Ring-billed Gulls, Black Terns, 

 Granes, Virginia' and Sora Rails, Amer- 

 ican Bitterns, Wilson's Phalaropes, 

 Yellow-legs, Pectoral Sandpiper, Least 

 Sandpiper, Bartramian Sandpiper, 

 American Ooots, Blue-winged Teal, 

 Spoonbills, Pintails, Mallards, Mourning 

 Doves, Canada Geese, Prairie Chickens, 

 Marsh Hawks, Grows, Blue Jays, Red- 

 winged Blackbirds, Meadow Larks, 

 Swallows, Sparrows. Martins, Bronzed 

 Graekles, Yellow, Myrtle and Redpoll 

 Warblers, Brown Thrushes, Marsh 

 Wrens, Kinglets and Robins; and the 

 first Bobolinks, Yellow-headed Black- 

 birds, Black-throated Bunting, King- 

 birds, Maryland Yellow-throat, Yellow 

 Warblers and Catbirds that I have no- 

 ticed this season besides several species 

 that I could not positively identify. 

 Rudolph M. Anderson, 

 Forest Citv, Iowa. 



SCENES FROM THE LIFE OP ALEXANDER 

 WILSON. 



His Second Southern Tour— Continued. 



G. Vrooman Smith. 



X 



In our last article we were following 

 our ornithological friend through the 

 wilds of Kentucky and Tenuessee and 

 more particularly through the one hun- 

 dred and eighty miles of Forest desert 

 intervening between Danville and 

 Nashville. 



How vastly has that beautiful terri- 

 tory changed since our traveller pushed 

 his way through its wilds' At the time 

 ' of which we write there was not a sin- 

 gle towu or village along the whole al- 

 most unbroken waste. Yet it was so 

 common for Wilson to travel' unaccom- 

 panied through uncultivated wilder- 

 nesses that his out door nature had in 

 fact become a part of the primeval sol- 

 itudes he was accustomed to explore in 

 quest of those feathered creatures he 

 had adopted as his conrpanions, friends, 

 aye we may almost say as relatives, for 

 in them he saw objects worthy of his 

 most humane consideration. Separat- 

 ed from. his native laud and near kin by 

 three thousand miles of watery waste, 

 and he himself alone in the world, do 

 we wonder that he bestowed so much 

 attention upon those winged denizens 

 of the forest whom he chose as his only 

 companions for long days and nights of 

 fatiguing travel through the then un- 

 broken American wilds V It is worthy 

 of note that our great pioneers in orni- 

 thology have all chosen similar modes 

 of life. And yet how imperfect would 

 be our knowledge of those birds fre- 

 quenting wild and dangerous places, if 

 a Wilson or an Audubon had not launch- 

 ed their canoes on unbroken waters, 

 pitched their tents in lonely forests, 

 kindled their camp fires far from the 

 habitations of man, with the roaring of 



