F. E. Blaauw—About Birds in North America



53



From New York I went south to Washington, a journey of about

six hours by express train, mostly over sandy country overgrown with

weedy pine-trees. Passing near a small swamp not far from New York,

I saw some so-called Red-winged Blackbirds (Agelceus phceniceus)

sitting in the reeds. Washington, although hot, was quite a relief

after the stuffy and dusty atmosphere of New York, and the streets

being planted with rows of trees looked quite cheerful after the barren

New York skyscrapers. In Washington there is a pretty park round

the Capitol, and there, running over the grass like the green Wood¬

pecker does in Europe, I found several examples of the Golden-winged

Woodpecker ( Colaptes auratus), which in Europe I had often kept in

my aviaries. Besides this Golden-winged, I saw several other Wood¬

peckers ( Melanerpes erythrocephalus) that looked like gentlemen in

black with white coat-tails and scarlet heads. They seemed to have

nests in the hollow trees, and took not the slightest notice of passers-by.

In the Zoological Gardens, which are situated in very fine, hilly country,

in what has been, I was told, a private country seat in the immediate

neighbourhood of the town, I was greeted by the sight of a pair of

Red Cardinals flying about. These birds, although protected, were

not numerous, as Dr. Hollister told me. As I have mentioned the

name of Dr. Hollister, the director of the zoological collection, I must

also mention the gems of his bird collection, namely, three splendid

living examples of the nearly extinct Californian Condor. For those

who don't know him, I might mention that this Condor is smaller

than the Condor of the Andes of South America, that it has about the

same coloration, but that the male has no fleshy crest and that the

naked head is coloured red and yellow. Dr. Hollister told me that they

had nested, but that unfortunately nothing had come of it.


From Washington I took the train to go south to St. Augustine in

Florida, a journey which takes two days and a night. A little south

of the town of Washington there was a colony of Sandmartins in

exactly the same site as where we find them in Europe, but, on the

whole, birds were exceedingly scarce. As we were nearing Florida on

the second day, Ave passed an occasional cypress swamp, in which the

trees, overgrown as they Avere by long clusters of tillandsia and with

SAvollen bases, had a most weird aspect. On, one occasion I saw a



