RE * OOLOGIS 



^- 



Vol.VI, 



ALBION, N. Y., FEB., 1889. 



No. 2 



A Red-headed Family. 



"(Je'tiugly I ken, ce'tingly ssla,"' said niy 

 Crac-ker Lo.st, takiug down his lon^ tiint-lotk 

 riHc from over the cabin door and slipping 

 his frowzy head thronsi;h the suspension- 

 strap of his powder-horn and Vnillet- pouch. 

 "Ce'tingly, seh, I ken cyarry ye ter wha' 

 them air birds had their nestis las' yer. ' 



I had passed the night in the ca'bin, and 

 now as I recall the experience to mind, 

 there comes the grateful fragrance of j)ine 

 wood to emphasize the memory. Corn 

 "pones" and broiled chicken, fried bacon 

 and sweet potatoes, strong coffee and scram- 

 bled eggs (a breakfast, indeed, to half 

 persuade one that a Cracker is a bon vivant) 

 had just been eaten. I was standing out- 

 side the cabin on the rude door-step. Far 

 off through the thin p ne woods to the east- 

 ward, where the sun was beginning to flash, 

 a herd of "scrub" cattle were formed into a 

 wide skirmish line of browsers, led by an 

 old cow, whose melancholy bell clanged in 

 time to her desultory movements. Near 

 by, to the westward, lay one'of those great 

 gloomy swamps, so c(mimon in Southeastern 

 Georgia, sorepellant and yet so fnscinating, 

 so full of interest to the naturalist, and yet 

 so little explored. The perfume of yellow 

 jasmine was in the air, iilong ^^ith those 

 indescribable Avoodsy odi:)rs which almost 

 evade the sense of smell, and yet so pleas- 

 ingly impress it. A riviilet, slow, narrow 

 and deep, passed near the front of the cabin 

 with a faint, dreamy murmur and crept 

 darkling into the swamp between dense 

 brakes of cane and bay -bushes. 



','Ye-as, seh, I ken mek er bee-line to that 

 air ole pine snag. Hit taint n)oreii half er 

 mile out yender, " continueil luy host and 

 volunteer guide, as we climbed the little 

 worm fence that inclosed the house;,, but I 

 alius called 'em air birds woodcocks; didn't 

 know at they hed any other name: alius 

 thut 'at a Peckwood wer' a leetle, tinty, 

 stripcdy feller: never hyeard er them air big 



ole woodcocks a bein' called Peckwoods. " 



He led and I followed into the damp, 

 moss-scented shadows of the swamp, under 

 cypress and live-oak and through slender 

 fringes of cane. We floundered across the 

 coffee-colored stream, the water cooling my 

 India-rubber wading-boots above the knees, 

 climbed over great walls of fnlleu tree-boles, 

 crept under low-hanging festoons of wild 

 vines, and at length found ourselves wading 

 rather more than ankle-deep in one of those 

 shallow cypress lakes of which the larger 

 part of the Okef enokee region is formed . 

 I thought it a very long half-mile before we 

 reached a small tussock whereon grew, in 

 the midst of a dense imderbirish thicket, 

 some enormous pine trees. 



"Ther','' said the guide, "thet air snag air 

 the one Sorter outer tother side ye '11 see 

 the hole, "boiat twenty foo: up. Kem yer, 

 I'll show hit ter ye. " 



The "snag" was a stiunp some fifty feet 

 tall, Larkless, smooth, almost as white ns 

 chalk, the decaying remnant of what had 

 once been the grandest j)ine on the tussock. 



"Hello, yer"! Hit's ben to work some 

 more since I wer' yer' las' time. Hit air 

 done dug another hole!" 



As he s]>oke he pointed incicatively, with 

 his long, knotty fore-finger. I looked and 

 saw two large round cavities, not unlike im- 

 mense auger-boles, running darkly into the 

 polished suiface of the stump, one about 

 six feet below the other, the lower twenty- 

 five feet above the ground. Surely it was 

 no very striking picture, this bare, weather- 

 wbiteijed column, with its splintered top 

 and its two orifices, and yet I do not think 

 it was a weakness for me to feel a thrill of 

 deli-ht as I gazed at it. How long and 

 how diligently I had sought the home of 

 Cinii/epItUt's jnhidpal/s, the grent king of 

 the red- headed family, and at last I stood 

 before its door! 



At my request, the kind Ci acker now left 

 me alone 1o prosecute my observations, 



"Bein ter dinner"/" he inquired as he 



