PRAIRIE BIRDS OF SOUTHERN ILLINOIS. 197 
from the pot. There were the little coffins—eight of them, and all 
empty. One was so much smaller than the others, that I con- 
cluded it must have contained a male. Very pretty things were 
these little cylindrical cases — the pupa coverings. (Fig. 34). At 
the thicker end a tiny lid was uplifted, much as if the sawn-off 
end of a cocoanut should serve as a lid to the shell, and should 
be raised to let out a captive bird. 
So each having made for itself a little coffin had lain therein 
just thirteen days. ‘‘ Thirteen days,” whispered a friend, a little 
superstitious about that number. ‘Thirteen days! The fault of 
their escape is not yours at all. It is a clear case of bad luck.” 
Well, my good friend, your theory is charitable at the least. But 
in my humble and penitent judgment, it does not condone the 
blunder which at the auspicious moment allowed the prize to fly 
away. Nature, like the Oracle, exacts of her inquirers watchful 
attention. 
THE PRAIRIE BIRDS OF SOUTHERN ILLINOIS. 
: BY ROBERT RIDGWAY. 
Havine familiarized the readers of the Naruratisr to some 
extent with the general character and appearance of the prairies 
of Southern Illinois in our article on ‘The Woods and Prairies of 
the Upland Portions,” I shall now give an account of an ornitho- 
logical reconnoissance of Fox Prairie, in Richland county, made 
in the summer of 1871 As this reconnoissance resulted in the 
discovery of several species of birds new to the state,* a few de- 
tails concerning it may not be uninteresting to our readers. The 
field of our observations was a. prairie of considerable extent, 
lying about four miles to the westward of the town of Olney, 
on the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad, and is merely one of the 
humerous arms or bays of the Grand Prairie which extend east- 
ward into the forest region of the Wabash valley. 
My companions and I arrived at it a little before noon, and saw 
before us the usual modern prairie prospect. A rolling plain 
Spread away from us, the farther side bounded by the border of 
timber, while the prairie itself was treeless, except where some 
* See AMERICAN NATURALIST, Vol. VI, July, p. 430. 
