36 PROCEEDINGS OP THE 



through the recesses of the great gray swamp. Bits of broken 

 sunshine were beginning to flash through the clouds, patches of 

 blue showed here and there through the tree-tops. Without 

 doubt we were to have a good day for running some twenty-five 

 or thirty miles of the Pocomoke. 



The swamp was alive with birds ; the air was full of their 

 songs ; it was evident that the first great rush of the migration 

 was on. The sprightly ringing notes of the Water Thrush came 

 from along the banks ; all through the swamp the Tufted Tits 

 were calling. The blood-red Cardinal flashed among the tangles 

 of green briar and wild grape, and his wonderful whistle came, 

 as always, clear-cut and incisive. From every part of the 

 swamp were flying the varied notes of the great Carolina Wren, 

 most marvelous songster of them all. These four species seem 

 always to be the principal performers in the great spring orches- 

 tra that greets one on entering that wooded swamp-land of these 

 southern rivers. And then comes the crowd of humbler musi- 

 cians that make up the body of the orchestra : the warblers, 

 with voices for the most part thin and reed-like, accented per- 

 haps by the ringing notes of the Yellow- throated Warblers 

 coming from the upper branches, or by the lively repetitions of 

 the Maryland Yellow-throat from somewhere near the ground ; 

 the vireos fluting away in somewhat careless fashion among the 

 treetops ; a touch of pathos thrown in here and there by the 

 tremulous, plaintive whistle of the White-throat from among the 

 thickets. One misses the violins of the thrushes in these early 

 April concerts ; the birds are there, but for the most part silent, 

 yet unquestionably we heard the first faint trilling of the Hermit 

 one morning just at daybreak when in our camp on the lower 

 Pocomoke. To all this concert is added the running accom- 

 paniment of the drums of the woodpeckers and tapping of 

 nuthatches. The Flicker, the Downy and Hairy, the Ked- 

 bellied and Yellow-bellied all beat their light tattoo, while loud 

 through the forest roars the bass thunder of the great Pileated 

 as he drives that powerful bill against the sounding surface of 

 some hollow limb. 



The navigation of the river was surprisingly easy. We had 

 looked for log-obstructions but found very little if any trouble 



