xii Contributions from the Charleston Museum. 



influence of tide water, and are usually heavily timbered with 

 cypress, tupelo, etc. 



The River Rice Fields are confined to the region in which the 

 fresh water of the rivers rises and falls as it is backed up by the 

 tides. The rice fields themselves are reclaimed swamp lands pro- 

 tected from the river by dykes, and flooded by trunks controlled 

 by gates. 



The Inland Rice Fields are also reclaimed swamp land, but are 

 flooded by water impounded in reservoirs formed by freshwater 

 swamps. 



The Main Land consists for the most part of plantations, past- 

 ures, and timbered land, with bushes growing along the roads and 

 the edges of the fields. The Red Hills and the Sand Hill region 

 have not been covered in the field work upon which this book is 

 based, and do not, therefore, require special mention here. 



HISTORY OP ORNITHOLOGY IN SOUTH CAROLINA. 



The literature of ornithology in South Carolina includes works 

 of three kinds: Narratives of early explorers, in which more or 

 less space is given to accounts of birds in connection with descrip- 

 tions of the country; scientific accounts based on ornithological 

 field work; and nominal lists compiled from previous publica- 

 tions. 



EARLY EXPLORATIONS. 



The first description of South Carolina containing any extend- 

 ed account of birds is that of Hilton. 1 I have not seen this work 

 in the original, but it has been reprinted in the South Carolina 

 Historical Society Collections,* in Courtenay's Genesis of South 

 Carolina, and in the Year Book of the City of Charleston. 1 The 

 last has the appearance of a very careful reprint. In describing 

 the coast from Port Royal to the Edisto River, Hilton says: 



"The Country abounds with Grapes, large Figs, and Peaches; 

 the Woods with Deer, Conies, Turkeys, Quails, Curlues, Plovers, 

 Teile, Herons; and as the Indians say, in Winter, with Swans 

 Geese, Cranes, Duck and Mallard, and innumerable of other water- 

 Fowls, whose names we know not, which lie in the Rivers, Marshes 

 and on the Sands:" 



' Hilton [William], A relation of a discovery lately made on the coast of Florida 

 (From Lat. 31. to 33 Deg. 45 min. North-Lat.). . . . tond. 1664. noricia, 



* Vol. V. Richmond, 1887, 18-49. » 1884, 229-261. 



