THE


Avicultural Magazine


BEING THE JOURNAL OF

THE AVICULTURAL SOCIETY

FOR THE STUDY OF

FOREIGN & BRITISH BIRDS

IN FREEDOM & CAPTIVITY


Third Series. —Vol. XIII.—No. 5 —All rights reserved. MAY, 1922.


ABOUT BIRDS IN NORTH AMERICA

By F. E. Blaauw

{Continued from p. 55.)


Palatka is a nicely situated little town on the St. John River, and was

once famous for the cypress swamps in its vicinity. These, however,

have been mostly laid waste by the lumbermen, so that it took me a

lot of time before I could find out where I could see an untouched

forest. However, with the help of one of the managers of a lumber

company there, I was directed to Oak Creek on the St. John River,

where I found a very fine cypress swamp which included alligators in

the muddy water. Birds, however, were conspicuous by their absence,

and the only bird of interest that I saw was a large black and white,

nearly all black, Woodpecker, which I take to be a specimen of

Phlacotomus pileatus.


From Palatka I travelled to Jacksonville to take a train there for

New Orleans, on the Oulf of Mexico. This journey takes about two

days and a night, and one travels chiefly over devastated country that

has at one time been covered with pine-woods. As one nears the

Mississippi the swamps become numerous, and in one of them I saw a

yellowish Rail, which I was told afterwards was quite a rare bird, and

like all Rails difficult to see ( Coturniceps noveboracensis). Besides the

Rail there were a good many red-shouldered black Starlings in the reeds

of the swamps, also little white Herons were conspicuous, and once

I saw a large blue Heron ( Ardea herodias). Numerous specimens of

Zenaidura macrura were seen during great part of the journey.


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