42 THE AUDUBON BULLETIN 

particularly resented by the farmers in that neighborhood who fear that 
the herons will not come back another year. 
For a number of years the average date on which Chimney Swifts 
have last been seen at Quincy, Illinois, has been October 17. The fall 
of 1925, however, was a marked exception. The last Swift left exactly 
a month later, or November 17. During this last month the birds 
weathered three distinct winter storms when the temperature was 
below freezing, and their only safety lay in the warm chimneys where 
they took refuge. Several of these flues I tested with thermometers and 
found them to be ventilators in which the air was from 65 to 70 degrees, 
so that the Swifts suffered no inconvenience except hunger. 
During one of these periods of cold the weather was about 30 degrees 
for three days. Many of the birds were found dead about town. How- 
ever, not one of the birds that I banded was found about the chimneys 
or streets of Quincy, so that I think most of them passed on southward 
before it was too late. Two Humming Birds were brought to me which 
had suffered from the cold and which I was able to band and revive 
sufficiently to assure their escape. They were about three weeks later 
in leaving this year than usual. An American Bittern was brought to 
me in a starved condition after one of these cold spells, having been 
caught by a farmer in one of his corn fields, where it was trying to secure 
something to eat. The bird was dangerously weak. However, I took it to 
a frozen swamp where I broke the ice and fed it a very hearty meal of 
small dead sunfish. After banding it, I released it in the cat-tails, where it 
revived sufficiently to travel 20 miles north on the next day’s south 
wind. It remained for two weeks at Lima Lake, when it was killed by a 
thoughtless hunter who reported the occurrence to me in order to find 
out about the band which was on the bird’s leg. (This killing is against 
the federal law.) 
The water which rushes through the huge dam across the Mississippi 
River at Keokuk was open during the entire winter, and Golden Eyes, 
Bufleheads and Fish Ducks were there in numbers during the entire 
winter season. 
The Quail came through the hunting season well, and with a dry 
spring we should have an increased number of them. 
The first Northern Shrike recorded in several years was seen at Clay- 
ton, this county, recently. 
Finally, increased activity has been shown in trying to save the great 
Lima Lake. This 10,000 acre swamp is the finest haven for swamp and 
water birds left in the State! Literally thousands of Rails, Coots, Ducks, 
and Gallinules go there yearly and it is hoped to save it as a State 
park or State game preserve. A few individuals are trying to force its 
drainage. We still have hopes of reserving it for the good of bird life. 
T. E. MussELMAN, 
Quincy, Illinois. 
