ILLINOIS AUDUBON SOCIETY 43 



Following is my list of birds "first seen" this fall: Night- 

 hawk, August 22; Tennessee Warbler, September 3; Marsh, 

 September 8; Red-tailed Hawk, September 9; Red-shouldered 

 Hawk, September 16; White-throated Sparrow, September 17; 

 Myrtle Warbler, September 18; Rusty Blackbird, September 18; 

 Western Meadowlark, September 21 ; Winter Wren, September 

 24; Ruby-crowned Kinglet, September 28; Fox Sparrow, Octo- 

 ber 1 ; Rough-legged Hawk, October 3 ; Brown Creeper, October 

 6; Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, October 7; Slate-colored Junco, 

 October 10; Hermit Thrush, October 15. 



I never saw so many Bluebirds migrating, as there are this 

 fall. Every day during September and the first part of October 

 they could be heard calling as they flew over. The Red-headed 

 Woodpeckers left early and were nearly all gone by the first 

 of September. Teals were reported to be numerous on the Missi- 

 ssippi River about the middle of September. One party said 

 there were thousands. The coldest weather we had this fall was 

 on the morning of October 12th, when the thermometer regis- 

 tered 32 degrees, and at the time of writing this, the leaves on 

 the trees in the woods are nearly all green yet. 



J. J. Schafer 



River Forest 



A Tiny Patient 



September twenty-seventh a small lad rushed breathlessly 

 into my room with a beating heart in a fluff of green feathers 

 carefully treasured in his hand. 



"This humming bird flew against the electric wires in front 

 of our house and hurt one of its wings ! I was so glad he was 

 not killed," he exclaimed. 



I took the tiny bird in my hand and directed the lad to pur- 

 chase some sugar from the nearest grocery. When he returned 

 I had placed the patient in a fish bowl on a bed of cotton, with 

 a twig, in case it should be able to perch. It was pitiful to see 

 the fright of the little thing. I quickly made a solution of sugar 

 and water in a dainty white shell and dipped the slender bill 



into it. The delicate, needle-like 

 tongue shot back and forth 

 cleaning off the bill each time. 

 I repeated the process several 

 times during the morning but 

 the creature was too frightened 

 to feed naturally. By noon all 

 fear had gone and when the bill 

 touched the liquid, it voluntarily 



remained taking a generous 

 portion. The tiny tongue dart- 

 ed in and out and it swallowed 



Photo by Richard Churchill 



