194 
NATURE STUDY. 
were greeted by the American pipit, a new bird to us, and 
the white-eyed chewink, who, contrary to the books, was 
very tame. He allowed us to come near to him, uttering 
all the time his “joree” call, which is literally “jor-ee,” and 
not “che-wink,” as is that of his northern cousin. The 
last syllable is sung a third higher than ours. As nearly 
as the intervals of our scale will permit me to write 
it, it is like this: 
while the red- 
Jo - ree ! 
Kingfishers, logger- 
head shrikes, two brown 
pelicans, seen from the 
sea side of the island, 
Che-wi?ik ! 
numerous Bonaparte’s gulls, twelve gannets fishing very 
far out at sea and visible only with the powerful Zeiss 
glass we carried, myrtle warblers, without the yellow on 
the head, and some killdeer completed that day’s list of 
birds. 
On the return trip we watched the black vultures walk 
around a refuse barrel—and laughed heartily over the per¬ 
formance—now with the neck stretched out, now with it 
drawn in ; now, fancying he could do it with a heron’s 
grace, he slowly lifts his ugly feet and waddles ludicrous¬ 
ly ; now he accelerates things by half lifting his untidy 
wings, and then he buries his repulsive head in matter 
unthinkable, and, after gorging himself, flies off, in this 
instance, to a fence post, and, hunching himself together, 
sits long in the sun, occasionally half-spreading his wings, 
or clumsily turning himself to face a shifting wind. It is 
only when on the wing, soaring and sailing in the sweet 
blue of a southern sky, that this bird appeals to one. At 
other times one recognizes him as a necessary scavenger, 
but heartily wishes this degrading office had been given 
any other animal than a bird. 
