i rietiee ot) Ue ReOeNe 6. U leo helio N 7 
Visiting Sherwood Plantation 
By C. W. G. Etrric, President, I. A. S. 
IT IS a primary purpose of our Bulletin to make the members of the 
Audubon Society better acquainted with the birds of Illinois. However, it 
will do them no harm if we branch out now and then and try to learn to 
recognize the birds of other states as well. Also, our members go traveling 
and then it is very useful to know what species one may expect to encounter. 
Sherwood Plantation les near Thomasville, in the extreme south of 
Georgia, not far from Tallahassee, the capital of Florida. It is the property 
of Mr. Herbert L. Stoddard, who twenty years ago was a well known figure 
among the ornithologists of Chicago. He was an expert preparator and 
collector for Field Museum, later for the Public Museum of Milwaukee, then 
a member of the Biological Survey in Washington, and now is the director 
of an extensive and intensive quail investigation in the South, with head- 
quarters at Sherwood. This study has resulted in, among other things, the 
publication of a fine monograph entitled ‘‘The Bob-white Quail,” by Mr. 
Stoddard, with supplements by several members of the Survey. 
When I arrived at the plantation July 16, 1939, Mr. Stoddard wanted 
first of all to show me his famous flock of wild turkeys, which have now 
been filmed by Dr. A. A. Allen and by Dr. Pettingill. In his car he boldly 
drove down between the rows of tung trees in one of his orchards, and 
there, sure enough, a flock of about ten of these lordly birds flew up. With 
any other approach they would in all probability have silently walked or 
run off without being heard or seen. It certainly gives one a thrill to see 
these fine birds in the wild state, easily the king of American game birds, 
now exterminated over most of their former range. 
Other birds, new to me, that I had wished to see for a long time, were 
pointed out by Mr. Stoddard right near the plantation house. Such were the 
chuck-will’s-widow, the red-cockaded woodpecker, and the brown-headed 
nuthatch. The chuck-will’s-widow, indeed, came right on the lawn of the 
home in the evening, where its large eyes glowed and its call, from which it 
gets its name, could be heard. The red-cockaded woodpecker lives up to its 
name because of the two scarlet tufts of feathers on the back of the head; 
its call is more like that of the white-breasted nuthatch. It lives in pine 
woods only, where it delights to scarify the bark of the trees. The brown- 
headed nuthatch is another strictly southern species, not common except 
locally. 
Then there are birds on the plantation which are absent in most or in 
much of Illinois, but had been seen by me elsewhere, such as the blue 
grosbeak, Bachman’s sparrow (here it may be the pine-woods sparrow), 
summer tanager, red-bellied woodpecker (a rarity at Chicago), mocking- 
bird, Carolina chickadee, Carolina wren, and white-eyed vireo. 
Of course, the species ranging from the Great Lakes to the Gulf are 
found here also, only in larger numbers, for this plantation, which is largely 
pine forest, is a strictly protected bird refuge. That scourge of the birds, 
the house cat, is completely eliminated here. Hence the abundance of birds. 
Thus these were present, some common: cardinals, tufted tits, wood 
