16 



Bulletin of the Michigan Ornithological Club. 



blast furnace, cleared the county at a rapid 

 rate. The Turkeys were thus driven into 

 the swamps for hiding, and lived and bred 

 there in rapidly diminishing numbers. A 

 few have continued to breed in Arlington 

 Township in a swamp facetiously called, 

 "The Garden of Eden," probably from its 

 wildness a few years past ; but as this 

 swamp has been drained, cleared, cut up 

 into small farms and brought into good 

 cultivation, the survivors have been driven 

 into a constantly diminishing area extend- 

 ing over three or four sections. As their 

 present abode is in the slashings or second 

 growth from which the original timber was 

 removed years ago, and consists of saplings, 

 briars and weeds, the Turkeys have man- 

 aged to prolong existence. 



During the winter of 1893-4, fourteen or 

 fifteen Turkeys were shot, being more than 

 were killed for several winters before. 

 Some were shot in tlie bush, others in the 

 timber on the hills, to which they re- 

 sorted to feed upon the beechnuts. Several 

 more were killed during the winter of 

 1895-6, mostly in the timber, being shot at 

 dawn while roosting in the trees. A few 

 were seen during the winter of 1896-7, and 

 a gobbler, shot in January, 1897, is the 

 last capture I have heard of. Were it not 

 for the Turkey's extreme wariness, it 

 would even now be extinct here ; as it is, 

 the clearing of the small patches of brush 

 will drive out the few surviving birds, and 

 the Turkey, like the Pigeon, will be a 

 thing of the past. I was told a few years 

 ago that a few Turkeys still lived in a 

 swamp near Paw Paw, but I am unable to 

 say at present wdiether there are any left. 

 Our last Game Law may protect the Turkey, 

 or it may prevent our hearing of the death 

 of the last surviving bird. 



Pileated Woodpecker. 



The Pileated Woodpecker, though once 

 common in Van Buren Co., has become 

 very rare. One was taken near the north 

 county line five years ago and preserved in 

 Bangor, but until last summer, no 

 others were heard of. On May 22, 1897, 

 the writer came suddenly upon a Pileated 

 Woodpecker hammering the trunk of a tree 

 four feet from the ground. The bird was 



very shy, and after uttering a few hoarse 

 calls, flew to another strip of woods without 

 giving a chance for a shot. The bird was 

 in very brilliant plumage and fully as large 

 as any mounted specimen I have ever seen. 

 On Sept. 18, 1897, I again met with one 

 of these Woodpeckers, and after half an 

 hour's watching and waiting, I finally shot 

 it. This bird was a young one, not yet 

 full grown, nor were its feathers fully de- 

 veloped. It was very shy and kept in 

 almost constant flight from tree to tree, 

 pausing now and then to hammer some 

 decayed stub, and utter its hoarse cries. 

 Sometimes it would drum upon a dry, 

 sound, maple limb, sounding like someone 

 hammering a barrel, and I believe it could 

 have been heard a mile. 



Red-breasted Nuthatch. 



The Red breasted Nuthatch, generally a 

 fairly common fall migrant, has for the last 

 three seasons been abundant. In the falls 

 of 1893 and 1894, only a few were seen, 

 but during the falls of 1895, 1896, and 

 1897, they were seen by hundreds, gener- 

 ally from* Oct. 1 to Nov. lOth. My only 

 winter and spring records are for a few 

 seen April 1, 2, 3,^1896, and Jan. 16, 1897. 



Cedar Waxwing. 



Some peculiar actions of the Cherry bird 

 were noticed by the writer last June. 

 We had tied cotton battir]g around the 

 trunks of a few small plum trees to thwart 

 the Curculio ; but soon found two pair of 

 Cherry birds busily engaged in carr3^ing it 

 away to a tree in the apple orchard. Upon 

 the eighth of June I found that one pair of 

 the birds had a nest finished. It was 

 saddled upon a horizontal limb near the 

 top of a Greening tree, and contained only 

 sufficient grass for a frame work, the rest 

 of the nest being composed of the stolen 

 batting. The pair now became quiet, and 

 the female was seen sitting in or near the 

 nest for several days, and I hoped she 

 would finish by laying, but in about a w^eek 

 thev abandoned the nest and were not seen 



again. 



Black-billed Cuckoo. 



The Black-billed Cuckoo seems in this 

 locality to nest very commonly, late in the 



