86 FLORIDA 



in the shade trees before the windows, or gather 

 about the kitchen door, crows and blackbirds 

 alike (and the male blackbirds, with their over- 

 grown tails, are almost or quite as large as the 

 crows), as fearless as so many English sparrows. 



After them the abundant birds hereabout, so 

 far as I have yet discovered, are buzzards, car- 

 rion crows (black vultures), blue jays, catbirds 

 (which I have never seen half so plentiful), palm 

 warblers, myrtle warblers, and blue-gray gnat- 

 catchers. Less numerous, but stUl decidedly com- 

 mon, are flickers, red-bellied woodpeckers, mock- 

 ingbirds, Florida yellow-throats, hummingbirds, 

 ground doves, and phcebes. Day before yesterday 

 a long procession of tree swallows straggled past 

 me as I wandered along the bay shore, and in the 

 same place a flock of masculine red-winged black- 

 birds were holding a vociferous mid-winter con- 

 vention in a thicket of taU reeds. White-eyed 

 vireos are well distributed, and sing as saucily 

 as if the month were May instead of January. 

 Solitary vireos are present likewise, but I have 

 seen only one, and he was not yet in tune. 



Out in the pine lands I came upon a single 

 group of piae warblers and haK a dozen blue- 

 birds, both singing freely. What a voice the 

 bluebird has ! It does a Yankee's heart good to 

 hear it. I have yet to see a robin or a chickadee. 



