66



F. E. Blaauw—About Birds in North America



Nearly all the trees in the swamps and a great many others as well,

including enormous specimens of Magnolia grandijlora, liguidambar,

styriaciflux, and ev’ergreen oaks, were covered by Tillandsia usneoides,

which formed grey fringes many yards long, and gave all the forests

of Florida and Southern Georgia and Alabama a most weird look.

New Orleans, situated on the mouth of the Mississippi, was terribly

hot, and I was soon driven to the parks to get the fresh air that


I might possibly find there. I first went to Audubon Park, which con¬

tained large grassy lawns and not very big trees. In it the Mocking

Thrush was again a very common and rather obtrusive bird, and

besides I only saw a few above grey and underneath white, little birds

which reminded me of our Chiff-chaffs ! There was also a dark-brown

longish songster with a song that reminded me of the song of our

Blackcap, but was shorter and not quite so good. In the ponds were

blue water-lilies, and I noticed that it took one of the flowers, which

was a closed bud when I first remarked it, just about one hour (from


II to 12 o’clock) to expand. Besides Audubon Park I visited the city

parks, but, except lots of black Swans, I saw little of interest there.


From New Orleans I travelled to Tucson, in Southern Arizona,

a journey that takes, if I rightly remember, two days and two nights.

One first travels over the low country of the Mississippi delta and of

Southern Louisiana, which is mostly cultivated, like also Southern

Texas ; then one approaches the Rio Grande and almost touches

Mexico, in El Paso. The country now gets drier, and in New Mexico

and Arizona thousands upon thousands of acres are overgrown with

Yuccas, which at the time of my visit showed their creamy white

flower-spikes many feet long. Opuntias had also gradually appeared,

and the first ones I saw were in low willov r woods, whilst in the oak

copse-woods none were to be seen. The only birds that were at all

regularly seen were specimens of the sharp-tailed Zenaidura macrura

and, more rarely, the smaller short-tailed Scardafella inca.


Tw t o or three times the day before I reached Tucson I saw a mirage,

which conjured a lake with a background of green trees in the Yucca

desert! The nearer we came to Tucson the more numerous became the

cacti, in endlessly varying species. In Tucson I left the train, and in

a temperature of about 116° Fahr. in the shade I reached my hotel.



