142 



THE 00L0QI8T 



FLORIDA SUNSHINE 



As far into my short past as I can 

 see I have always been interested 

 deeply in birds and mammals. I have 

 always waited patiently until spring 

 when they would be allowed by old 

 man weather to return to their and 

 my old rendezvous along the stone 

 walls, pastures, swamps, woods and 

 hillsides up amongst these Connecticut 

 hills and ridges. 



I have fished the swift trout brooks 

 more than once and caught notliing; 

 at other times a good string, but at all 

 times their cheery song and presence 

 has been most welcome. 



The young fellow of today is rare 

 that likes to go into the woods and 

 study birds, and give up good times of 

 going to shows and having all kinds of 

 pleasure. I have few friends but 

 plenty of sympathizers, alas it is too 

 bad to be known as a "bird crank," 

 '■fiend," "odd stick," etc. Therefore it 

 is a pleasure to have friends interested 

 like yourself even to write to. You 

 know, misery loves company. 



Now therefore, in the spring of 1919 

 when my friend, Mr. W. W. Worthing- 

 ton of Shelter Island, N. Y. wrote and 

 asked me if I cared to go to Florida 

 and assist him and study the birds a 

 little I sura thought an offer had come 

 down from heav. ;. 



I went over and paid him a visit, 

 went salt water fishing the first tims 

 of my life, and inspected the boat we 

 were to use in Florida. It was a skiff 

 only 14 feet long with cockpit. It had 

 collapsible hoops over the pit at night 

 and to cover the sail. 



I saw Mr. Worthington's wonderful 

 mounted collection in the Shelter 

 Island Library and was much im- 

 pressed with it, with its originator al- 

 so, and planned to have a like collec- 

 tion some day myself. A piece I read 

 in "The Oologist," of June 1918 came 

 to my mind at once. It is titled "An 



Appreciation," and I am sure this short 

 story written by Mr. S. S. Dickey is 

 meant for the same kind of men as Mr, 

 Worthington. 



From him I leatnt much on our trip 

 and he was unconscious of the larger 

 part of it. I also learned that science 

 is based on facts, cold facts. 



We were to leave the first of No- 

 vember so I left Long Island in week, 

 and went home to work very hard that 

 summer to buy my outfit, etc. 



We kept up a perpetual correspond- 

 ence throughout the summer and made 

 all our plans. We were to go to New 

 Berlin at first and wait for our boat to 

 come down by express. 



1 took "The Wyandotte" at New 

 London, the 29th of October and went 

 over to Long Island and found Mr. 

 Worthington had everything as- 

 sembled and had spent much time, 

 painstaking time, getting things ready. 

 He also built our boat, a handsome 

 piece of work. 



We left Greenport, Long Island No- 

 vember 15th with what stuff we could 

 carry and dog, our mascot, "Rags," a 

 very small dog that liked a boat. We 

 finally arrived at the wonderful Penn- 

 sylvania Station and as we were load- 

 ed down pretty heavy and had a dog 

 we were the subject of many curious 

 eyes, but I imagine we did look "kinda- 

 seedy." 



The rest of that day we saw New 

 York City, bought our tickets on the 

 Clyde Line, and visited the New York 

 Museum of Natural History which is 

 some Museum. When night came I 

 had the worst headache of my life and 

 sure was glad to get to "roost." 



We left New York at about 10 a. m. 

 the next day and soon were past the 

 Statue of Liberty, and headed south- 

 ward, to that birds' paradise Florida. 

 I never got seasick but was glad 

 when we got to Charlestown, S. C. We 

 visited the old slave market, St. 



