9 8 
Brewster on Southern Birds. 
Woodpecker was exclusively a bird of the pines. It was not 
common about St. Mary’s and I had difficulty in getting as many 
specimens as I wanted. Its notes to my ear almost exactly resem- 
bled those of Sitta fusilla. On the ist of May I started a female 
from her nesting-hole, which was about thirty feet above the 
ground in a large and apparently perfectly sound pine. I was 
unable to climb the tree but the bird acted as if her eggs had 
already been laid. 
The pine lands of the South have an open park-like character 
that is a continual surprise to one accustomed only to New Eng- 
land forests. The trees rarely stand in close proximity to one 
another, and they are often so widely scattered that the general 
effect is that of an opening rather than a forest. Unless a hum- 
mock interrupts the view, the eye may sometimes roam for half- 
a-mile in every direction over a perfectly level plain, interspersed 
with occasional trees whose tufted heads throw waving shadows 
upon the bright green beds of saw-palmetto that cover most of 
the ground beneath. Were it not for the half-wild cattle that 
range at wdll through the country, the palmetto would probably 
usurp every inch of ground ; but these creatures keep it within 
reasonable limits, and many spaces of closely cropped grass and 
stunted blueberries intervene. About such places I used to find the 
Bachman’s Finch, a retiring little bird which might easily be over- 
looked by one unacquainted with its habit of skulking among the 
herbage and lying concealed until nearly trodden on. But no one 
with the slightest ear for bird music can long remain in igno- 
rance of its presence after the breeding-season has set in, for the 
male possesses vocal powers of a very rare order. His song is a 
prolonged, leisurely chant composed of several distinct bars or 
sets of notes, with brief pauses between, as if the bird stopped to 
take breath. The final notes of each bar have sometimes a rising, 
sometimes a falling, inflection, and the tone is varied in the most 
subtle manner. Now it has a full bell-like ring that seems to fill 
the air around ; next it is soft and low and inexpressibly tender ; 
now it is clear again, but so modulated that the sound seems to 
come from a great distance. The whole performance is very 
simple and I hardly know T the secret of its charm. To be fully 
appreciated it should be heard in the soft twilight of an April 
evening, when the still w r oods are filled w r ith dusky shadows. At 
such times it has moved me more deeply than I care to confess. 
