1878 - Mt. Carmel - Ill - [Illinois]
First Trip up Potoka Creek
Saturday 
April 20. Clear and pleasant. Spent
the forenoon in the house skinning our
birds. Late in P.M. drove down to the river
hired a skiff and with R. & Mr. Wiley
paddled up Potoka creek for almost a
mile. Potoka (Indian for crooked river)
is a winding, sluggish stream fringed
with black willows. Birds of all kinds
were numerous but we tried for none
excepting Prothonotaries. Took only one
gun & R. did most of the shooting.
The birds we divided, for the last time.
Took Protonotaria citrea six males
D. [Dendroica] domin. [dominica] albilora one [male]; D. [Dendroica] caerulea [female];
Seiurus motacilla one [male]
Arrivals. Coccyzus americanus, several.
Saw a single little Wood Duck, a chick
apparently only a few days old, which
had probably become separated
from its parent. Yesterday evening
while waiting for the ferry boat at the 
mouth of Potoka we watched a singular
conflict between two Cathartes aura
1878 - Mt. Carmel - Ill - [Illinois]
Sunday - April 21.  Spent the 
entire day about the house writing
letters and skinning a few birds.
I shot a fine [male] Zon. Zonotrichia leucophys in
the back yard, using my little 
pistol. About seventy five per cent
of the country about Mt. Carmel
is cleared and wheat fields
occupy most of the cultivated
areas. The woods present to a casual
eye, nearly the same appearance as
those in Mass. [Massachusetts] - Oak & hickory ones
I mean. The country is rolling &
was formerly open prairie the 
timber having sprung up with the
restriction of the prairie fires.
The people are largely Germans.
This applies only to the Ill. [Illinois]
side of the Wabash [river]. Across that
river in Indiana, heavy forests
cover the river bottoms for five or
six miles back. A few clearing[s] 
only occur in this superb forest.