JOURNAL OF MAINE ORNITHOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



27 



I gave my imagination loose rein, and 

 fancied that some of my companions 

 of the summer had come across 

 country to see me safely home and 

 were thus bidding me good-bye. 

 PROF. AUSTIN P. LARRABEE. 



ixvead at the 7th annual meeting in 

 Portland, Nov. 28, 1902.) 



[*A nest of this bird we had oc- 

 casion to examine in Livermore, was 

 placed in a slender fir-balsam about 

 twenty feet up. The nest that we lo- 

 cated at Pittsfield, and of which Mr. 

 Morrell got a photo of, was situated ^n 

 a tall cedar about thirty feet up. This 

 tree was well into the deep woods and 

 but few of the limbs on the trunk, till 

 about twenty-five feet up. Ed.] 



A WALK IN THE OUTSKIRTS OF 

 CHARLESTON, S. C. 



At an early hour one morning in 

 November, while the dense fog from 

 the harbor still hung like a gray man- 

 tle over the city, and gavie one a 

 sticky dog days feeling, we left the 

 Pavilion Hotel. Early though it was, 

 long lines of mule teams, laden with 

 King Cotton had for hours been steadi- 

 ly rattling over the pavings; in fact 

 we were nearly certain that we had 

 heard the crack of the darkey driver's 

 whips, and their cry of "Up mule-ee", 

 althrough the night. As we passed 

 down Meeting street the fog began to 

 lift, and by the time we were fairly 

 out in the country the sky was clear, 

 and the sun lending its genial influence 

 to the scene. 



Leaving the highway, we entered a 

 field where the dead vines of the sweet 

 potato still cumbered the ground and 

 saw running in and out among them a 

 flock of meadow larks, searching for 

 their morning meal; the bright yellow 

 of their breasts showing in strong con- 

 trast to the dead brown of the dying 

 vegetation. 



On the lower land several kill deer 

 plovers, or "Cheeweekers", as the 

 darkey calls them, were sporting. 



Very pretty and lively birds they 

 are, but one soon tires of their loud 

 cries of "killdee, killdee." 



High over head in graceful gyrations 

 sailed the vulture, rising or falling at 

 will, or swooping past you with lighten- 

 ing velocity, it seems not to change the 

 position of a feather. To this bird 

 with an ugly and ungainly body, dis- 

 gustingly vdle in its habits, a power of 

 flight has been given that is unexcell- 

 ed by any bird on our continent, and 

 before whose movements in the air, 

 the sprite like sporting of the sea gulls 

 pale to insignificance. 



Noticing a movement of birds in a 

 hedge row, we approached to find old 

 acquaintances. 



The yellow rumped warbler, cat- 

 birds, red eyed towhees and various 

 kinds of sparrows hopping from bush 

 to bush, and thicket to thicket as we 

 had observed them in Maine, where 

 they had, a few weeks before, taken 

 up the line of march southward. 



The call of "Bob White" came up 

 from the neighboring plantations, and 

 we met many colored boys with old 

 rusty guns searching for "de birds", 

 but we saw them have little game. I 

 asked one boy if he shot his birds on 

 the wing. "Yes, boss," he said, "on 

 de wing, on de haid, on de bill or any 

 wheres." 



Leaving the open fields we entered a 

 dense thicket composed principally of 

 live oaks, draped to the ground with 

 the beautiful silver gray Spanish moss, 

 running vines and luxuriant under- 

 growth impeded our progress and 

 when at last we emerged into an open 

 field we gladly fortified ourselves with 

 the lunch provided for us at the hotel, 

 and which we had more than once 

 been tempted to throw away, during 



