
          794.

along paths through the swamp almost parallel with the road.
I found a large nest on the ground.  A great many birds were nearby.
They were about the size of our robin.  They did not seem to be
at all afraid and approached quite close to me.  They could whistle
very loud and their sweet chords were most pleasant to hear.  Some 
of them had top-knots.  Their bills were quite long and sharp.  They were
of an olive green color, at any rate their backs & wings were; their
breasts were reddish brown.  A short distance beyond the nest
I found Skunk Cabbage coming up.  Looking carefully I found
some of the ripe fruit.  One of the fruits had been almost completely
devoured.  The large seeds were lying close by.  They were about
½ in. in diameter almost spherical on one of the slightly flattened sides
is a little depression, showing where it was attached to the
placenta.  The seeds have the strong odor of the plant, as I readily
learned in breaking one open, and explains why they are not eaten.
From the appearance of the fruit, I am sure it had been eaten
by the turtle.  I now hurried onward, Mr. W. was already far
ahead.  I presently came up with him, he was sitting on the roadside
awaiting me.  He had stopped there, to call my attention to a dead
bird. It was sitting up near the middle of the road, very close to a thick
        