full song. In the Cat tails about the ponds I
heard & saw Swamp Sparrows and Maryland
Yellow-throats. Flitting from place to place along
the water's edge and alighting on the dead
cotton stalks were numerous Palm & Yellow-rumped
Warblers. Among some young loblolly pines a
pair of Centurus carolinus were flitting about
hammering at the tree trunks and calling wr-r-r-oo
like Flickers. There were many Sparrows in
the cotton fields, chiefly Grass Finches with a
few Yellow-wings and one Bachman's Finch
(typical) which I shot. Meadow Larks in flocks
and silent rose every now & then from the
brown grass under the pines. On the edge of
one of the ponds I started a flock of eight
Ground Doves. Regulus calendula and Parus carolinensis
were heard in full song. Zonotrichia albicollis
numerous in the thickets along the roadsides when
I also saw  a few Song Sparrows. One of the latter
sang fully & imperfectly.
  The [female] Ring-necked Duck could not be driven from
this chain of ponds but she became very shy
after I had shot her mate and flew from one
place to another. Some young people on horseback
told me that a pond further along the road
was "full of Ducks" so C. and I drove there. We
found a beautiful little pool about an acre in
extent fringed with button bushes and surrounded by
woods through which, on one side, the road passed
near the water's edge. In this pond were ten Ring-necked
Ducks (6 [male] - 4 [female]). They were so tame that we watched
them fishing at a distance of less than 40 yds. I did
not shoot at them because I had no means of getting them
out of the water.
[margin] The birds shot in the lower ponds were all in water four or five feet
deep and as there was no wind they would not drift ashore.
I accordingly had to hire a negro to strip and walk out
for them. Bull frogs (genuine catisbiana) in full boom to-day. Many
painted turtles (E. picta) in the small ponds.[/margin]