ILLINOIS AUDUBON SOCIETY 39 



Unusual Birds Along the Mississippi River Near Quincy 



For a number of years I have been keeping a record of birds which 

 visit this vicinity and my efforts have been rewarded and my interest 

 increased by the occasional appearance of some arctic, tropical or western 

 visitor which seldom is or which never before has been reported. 



Probably the most unusual northern bird recorded in this vicinity 

 was the Labrador Duck. A number of years ago. when ducks were hunted 

 for and sold openly in the market, a collector from the Smithsonian 

 Institute happened in a duck shop and found a rarity — a Labrador Duck 

 hanging, ready to be sold. 



"Got any more like this one?" anxiously inquired the collector. 



"Had three but just sold two beauties to a couple of fishermen who 

 live in a shanty-boat down two miles on the point," was his reply. 



The collector rented a launch which rapidly chugged its way to the 

 fishermen's shack. In he rushed to find the latter standing before a stove 

 frying two carcasses which had been the much desired specimens. 



"Are those the ducks you just bought up town?" inquired the Smith- 

 sonian man. 



'"Yep." was the reply. 



"Well, I'm sorry, for you are eating up $1,000 worth of ducks which 

 Uncle Sam wants, but I can't pay you unless the carcasses have feathers 

 on. Good day." 



From the far Southland appeared the Roseate Spoonbill which was 

 first reported by Mr. Otho Poling of Quincy. This bird appeared about 

 eight years ago after a number of days of continual strong south wind. 

 It was seen by a number of local sportsmen but never has it reappeared. 

 Xo doubt the continual south wind forced it this far north. 



From the westland we have recorded the Oregon Junco, and White- 

 headed Woodpecker, Harris Sparrow, and one fall the beautiful Western 

 Grebe was much more numerous than our common "Hell Diver," or Pied- 

 billed Grebe. 



Another unusual guest appeared last week. I was in the densest of 

 our lowland oak woods when far away — nearly a mile — I heard the tattoo 

 of some large woodpecker upon a particularly resonant hollow limb. My 

 companion remarked that if he were near town he w T ould think it a trip 

 hammer. 



I had an idea of what it was. for hunters had told me of a huge 

 woodpecker up in the islands the previous winter. .After the big noise oc- 

 curred, dozens of smaller members of that family would nearly bounce their 

 little heads off trying to rival the noise made by the larger bird. Naturally 

 these conditions appealed to me as a bird lover — and imagine my added 

 delight upon coming near a huge oak tree to discover a beautiful Northern 

 Pileated Woodpecker, a huge bird which would have measured from my 

 elbow to my finger tips, perched on a limb, high in the tree and as I 

 approached, he beat a challenging tattoo, his red-crested head bouncing 

 back and forth like a trip hammer for sure. He was the first I had ever 

 seen and the first to be reported in Illinois, I believe, in a number of years. 



Other birds come here as irregular migrants such as : the Bohemian 



