4 THE AUDUBON BULL EerIeN 
At a Feeding Shelf in Florida 
| By C. W. G. EIFrric 
AS BECOMES an ex-president of the Illinois Audubon Society, the writer, 
upon arriving at his new home in Florida, made a feeding shelf for birds 
which he placed below a live oak near his study window. And it is remark- 
able what a lot of peculiarities in voice and action, what odd mannerisms 
and foibles one will notice on the part of birds, such as one rarely has a 
chance to see when going out into wood and field. 
The only boarders noted on and below the shelf are in order of their 
abundance: Florida bob-white, blue jay, Florida redwing, red-bellied wood- 
pecker, Florida cardinal, ground dove, English sparrow, tufted titmouse, 
brown thrasher, and white-eyed towhee. The mockingbird and flicker 
looked over the shelf once, but as there were no ants or other insects there 
they immediately left in disgust. 
The most timid, but at the same time the most numerous boarder is the 
Florida bob-white. There were as many as twenty-four below and on the 
shelf at one time, four on the shelf at once. They announce their coming 
by a loud call of their leader. There is one family of nineteen and one of 
thirteen that come together. One can tell that they are there by the volume 
of subdued chattering they indulge in, frequently punctuated by queer 
louder sounds, signals and calls. One has a call much like a whip-poor-will. 
The mating call, bob white, is not heard now. The Florida variety is 
supposed to be smaller than the northern one, and no doubt it is, but some 
of them seem to me to be just as large as their northern congeners. There 
is more black in the coloring of these, as becomes birds that live where 
there is much water and vegetation. Two of my boarders seem to walk 
higher, have longer legs than the others. I suppose there have been various 
introductions from other regions—your state game commissions can hardly 
do without that now. Often one or several will suddenly run around or 
after each other with incredible speed, as though they were just gliding, 
not moving any legs. If there is a blue jay near one, the quail will suddenly 
bristle up and rush at it in a rather intimidating way. When there is no 
food, one or the other will voice its indignation in a loud call of different 
timbre. At least so it sounds to me. 
The most gluttonous and insolent of my boarders is the blue jay. That 
is to be expected. I have counted as high as ten on and under the shelf at 
one time. It is easy to see that there are two subspecies before you when 
looking at them. Some seem to me to be just as large as the ones in Illinois, 
the others are smaller and grayer on the back of the neck. These latter, 
too, have that loud hawk-like eall. All of them, like the quail, have quite a 
repertory of sounds and calls, somewhat different from those you hear up 
north. There is an amusing confusion among systematists as to who’s 
who among the blue jays in Florida. The A.O.U. checklist gives three blue 
jays all told: the northern (Cyanocitta c. cristata), the Florida (C. c. 
florincola), and Semple’s (C. c. semplei). Howell, in his book “Florida 
Bird Life,” calls the first one southern blue jay and makes it the breeding 
species for the northern half of the state. The smaller one and only other 
