BIRD PARADISE 135 



open, so far as the place itself is concerned, but 

 the carpet being entirely absent, there is no cover 

 for creatures of any kind. Doubtless there are 

 other retreats for the fellows, but I have the no- 

 tion that the fields of the South are not the pro- 

 lific home of the smaller creatures such as I have 

 named above. I noticed a small sparrow-hawk 

 prospecting in the immediate vicinity of several 

 negro cabins. He dropped down into one of the 

 yards, and I thought secured a luckless sparrow. 

 As we passed down the river from Wilmington I 

 noticed a small conference of the buzzards gath- 

 ered about some dead creature that the receding 

 tide had left above the water line. Two or three 

 hawks and as many crows took their departure 

 when the buzzards came upon the scene. A large 

 amount of food is furnished every day from the 

 river and ocean. The keen sight of all the birds 

 named above is simply wonderful. They quickly 

 discover the dead as well as the living animals, 

 and are certainly adepts in appropriating the de- 

 licious viands offered them. 



In my boyhood several species of owls were 

 common here. The great hollow trees of the 

 wood furnished them with homes entirely to their 



