Region and Distribution of the Birds. 
81 
The old river-beds have great importance in the bird life. 
Here is a luxuriant plant growth. Many places are full of wild 
rice, which is a favorite food of ducks. The piece of land 
which is cut through by the river and its old beds is not 
swamp. In the spring it is mostly under water, but during 
summer it becomes quite dry. It is covered with luxuriant old 
deciduous forest, consisting mostly of soft maple, but which is 
mixed with other kinds of trees, such as elm, ash, willow, etc. 
Many kinds of birds prefer especially to build in the maples 
near the water. Of these may be mentioned Setophaga ruti- 
cilla , Icterus galbula, Vireo gilvus, Compsothlypis americana and 
Ectopistes migratorius. The woods near the rivers are a favorite 
station for the warblers in migration. I could watch them from 
my boat and without difficulty follow them from tree to tree. 
When I was in my boat they were not at all afraid. I could often 
come within a few yards of them. In migration time I took my 
boat almost daily down the Shioc River and up the Wolf River 
about as far as the old river. I almost always found most war¬ 
bler flocks at the point of the. peninsula where the rivers come 
together. Here there is a thick growth of old maples, and 
along the water stands a row of willows. Of certain species, 
though, there were generally more in a great thicket in one of 
the Wolf river’s old channels just west of the peninsula and the 
main stream. 
Many of the birds that keep in or near the water seem to 
have no choice between the two rivers. Seiurus noveboracensis 
is seen everywhere where there are water and woods. Actitis mac- 
ularia cares nothing for the woods, neither does Podilymbus 
podiceps. Other birds are more fastidious. Aix sponsa prefers 
decidedly Wolf River. The same is the case with Lophodytes 
cucullatus and Urinator imber. In the isolated groves along its 
borders Totanus solitarius feels truly at home. 
On the contrary Dajila acuta , Anas strepera , Anas americana , 
A. carolinensis, A. discors ) Aythya collaris , Glaucionetta clangula 
americana , Charitonetta albeola and Colymbus auritus are found 
mostly in the overflowed Shioc Meadows. I so called a large 
tract of land on both sides of the Shioc River north of the 
“Striped House.” It is not swamp, but the water stands over 
