54



F. E. Blqauiu — About Birds in North America



small flight of rvhite birds flying away from us, and which looked like

White Ibises, but they were too far to be sure of it. In the fields the

train frightened away flocks of sharp-tailed little Doves, probably

Zenaidura macrura. In Jacksonville I had to change and the new

train brought me to St. Augustine, where I arrived about S o’clock

at night.


St. Augustine is situated, as everybody knows, on the Atlantic with

Anastasia Island, with which it is connected with a bridge, opposite.

The first bird I saw the next morning was a Mocking Thrush ( Mimus

poli/glottus), which was running about the garden, looking extremely

long and thin, and moving its long tail continually in all possible

directions, and I afterwards found out that this Thrush takes the place

of the Migratory Thrush in the Southern States. It is seen everywhere

in the gardens of the towns and in the woods, and it is a very active

and rather quarrelsome bird that is not used to hiding himself. The

song of these birds resemble almost exactly the song of the European

Song Thrush, but is not nearly so strong nor so melodious. In fact,

I was very much disappointed when I heard the first bird sing, and I

think that it cannot stand in the shade of its European cousin. The

next bird I saw was a female Nonpareil Finch, which was feeding on

seeds of rough weeds that grew near the hotel. In a bit of wood con¬

sisting of glorious old magnolia-trees ( Magnolia grandiflora), evergreen

oaks and junipers, all of them overgrown by tillandsia and long,

creeping vines, I saw a splendid pair of Red Cardinals that were

mobbing a pair of Blue Florida Jays, so that they probably had a brood

not far off. I also heard the notes of a family of Bobvdiites ( Colinus

virginianus), which, however, kept so well-hidden in the thick under¬

wood that I could not see them. Over the bog a little white Black-

capped Tern, probably Sterna antillarwn, was fishing with great

diligence.


If one stood on the bridge that connected St. Augustine with

Anastasia Island when the tide was low, there was a good occasion to

observe the little Herons that were looking for food on tlxe mud-flats.

Some of these little Herons were pure white, some were grey with rufous

plumes on their backs and white plumes on the heads, and some were

grey and white ; they all were extremely beautiful. In a dead tree



