Brewster on Southern Birds . 
95 
are evergreen, but some of them, curiously enough, assume 
bright autumn tints and cast their leaves in April. This at least 
is true of the live-oaks and magnolias : during my stay at St. 
Mary’s one of the latter, a remarkably fine tree which I often 
passed in my daily walks, was at one time nearly denuded, 
while the ground beneath was strewn with scarlet and orange- 
tinted leaves. 
By the middle of April the fields and forests wore that mature 
appearance which we associate with August and early Sep- 
tember. At noonday cicadas shrilled in the sultry woods, and 
crickets chirped all night long in the shrubbery about the house. 
Yet few birds had begun to nest, and many of the northern ones 
still lingered. I saw Yellow-rumped Warblers, Blue Yellow- 
backed Warblers and Cedar Birds nearly to the end of April, 
and a White-throated Sparrow as late as May 2. Many of the 
Blue Yellow-backed Warblers remained to breed, or rather were 
breeding , for long before this (on April 9) I had found a nearly 
finished nest. The local birds, however, did not mingle with 
the strangers, the former being found in pairs, and only where 
the trees were hung with Spanish moss ; while the latter oc- 
curred in all kinds of timber, and in flocks made up largely of 
Redstarts,. Kinglets, Black-poll Warblers and other northern 
species. The same was true of the Catbirds, Brown Thrushes, 
Pine Warblers, Towhees and several others. It was especially 
marked in the case of the Towhees, for the resident individuals 
belonged to a different and readily recognizable race. 
One needed but to pass the boundaries of St. Mary’s to be 
fairly in the country, for the village had not then overflowed 
its limits, and the few outlying plantations were scarcely less 
wild and unkempt than the woods which surrounded them. 
One of my favorite haunts was the “Bay-gall” (I could never 
learn the origin of this name) , a tract of swampy forest less than 
a quarter of a mile distant from the house at which we were 
staying. This place was sure to be alive with birds, and I rarely 
entered it without making some pleasing discovery. My first 
visit was on April 6, the day after our arrival. As I approached 
the woods a Red-bellied Woodpecker started from a solitary tree 
within a few feet of my head, and alighting at the base of one 
near by scrambled hurriedly up, dislodging the scales of loose 
bark in his asc.ent. He was immediately joined by his mate and 
