eee Ure ee ON a ball: hein 15 
Field Trip to Allerton Park 
By JANET H. ZIMMERMANN 
THE FIELD TRIP to Robert Allerton park, near Monticello, Ill., on April 
22 and 23 was a great success. Sixty-four members of the Illinois Audubon 
Society were Saturday evening dinner guests of the University of Illinois, 
which owns the park. Of these 32 were from Monticello, Champaign, Urbana 
and Rantoul, one each signed from Mattoon and Arthur, and 30 were from 
the Chicago area. Dr. Ralph E. Yeatter, a member of the I.A.S. board of 
directors and game specialist for the State Natural History Survey, had 
charge of all arrangements. Dr. S. Charles Kendeigh, professor of zoology 
at the U. of L., led the field trip Sunday morning, in which about 80 persons 
participated. 
Few of us who were to spend the night there had any idea what to ex- 
pect of Robert Allerton park. I had a notion that the residence would be a 
large, roomy farmhouse. We began to suspect that we had underestimated 
the “farm” as we drove along an avenue of tall arborvitae, from which for- 
mal gardens open on either side. One, called the “Garden of the Blue Dogs,” 
is lined with large Chinese dogs of blue enamel. The “farmhouse” is a red 
brick mansion in a beautiful setting of gardens, lawns, and rolling meadows. 
It faces an artificial lake, and the winding, wooded Sangamon river. The 
drawing room, and smaller informal library and sitting room at either end 
of it, overlook the lake and river. Most of us were given rooms in the ser- 
vants’ wing, but Dr. and Mrs. Alfred Lewy “hit the jack-pot” with one of 
the master bedrooms. They held open house for visitors who called on them 
to admire the luxurious furnishings, the marble fireplace, the great bow- 
window with the same view as the drawing room directly below, and the 
private marble bath. 
The field trip Sunday morning started at nine o’clock, under Dr. Ken- 
deigh’s leadership. Most of the group had been up since five o’clock, wander- 
ing along the paths bordering the river or roaming through the estate’s 11 
formal gardens. Most of the gardens are decorated with sculpture, includ- 
ing a figure of Adam by Rodin, and the “Death of the Last Centaur” by 
Antoine Bourdell. The “Lost Garden” in an undeveloped area several 
miles from the mansion appealed to the imagination. 
A total bird list of about 35 species was not impressive, but all the 
Chicagoans were delighted with a summer tanager which moved quietly 
about the tops of the still bare trees and permitted everyone to examine 
him at length. A barn owl also was very accomodating, and let us peer 
into his heart-shaped monkey face. Even the weather relented. Saturday 
was fair and warm. On Sunday it was hot, and the rain held off until the 
last hiker had come indoors for dinner at one o’clock. 
The dinner Saturday evening was held in the library, a great room 
about 100 feet long paralleling the drawing room on the opposite side of 
the house. Dr. Yeatter presided. He introduced Don Duncan, president of 
the Champaign County Audubon club, who gave a brief account of the 
club. It has about 60 members in good standing, and a mailing list of 
