erie el Ue BORN Bile lel, Hill N 3 
I saw. That is the only animal they have had to trap for control. Even a 
wildcat caught in a trap was released as they are not in sufficient numbers 
to be a menace. 
I did not see a snake anywhere, although we visited some known rattle- 
snake dens. I did see two little blue lizards, one of which we caught only to 
have it escape before we reached home. Two or three large snapping turtles 
were seen and turned over temporarily, but they were too large for souvenirs. 
There were several villages of prairie dogs and they were pretty lively and 
quite approachable. Although a considerable number of large buteos were 
seen from time to time circling over these villages none was seen to attempt 
a capture, perhaps because the dogs were all full-grown at that season. 
Of the birds the great treat was my first sight of a wild turkey. At 
least seven flocks were seen without any trouble. One or two roosted in trees 
near headquarters and it was a great sight to see them fly and hear the 
rush of their wings; but the greatest sight was to see the beautiful iridescent 
bronze gobblers strutting in the sun, certainly the most beautiful of all our 
birds. How I wished for the color camera that was not there! 
Then there were the eagles; I saw four in one day. One of them was 
brown with a great deal of white on the back and upper tail. The brown 
was lighter and softer than I have ever seen on the immature bald, and he 
associated with three others all dark, who sailed like red-tails. I took them 
all to be golden eagles, as I did another one seen another day, although the 
bald is also seen there. From the descriptions of the immature eagles in 
“The Hawks of America,” in the various state books on birds, and by Bent, 
I was unable to distinguish them. Both immatures have considerable white 
in their plumage variously distributed and I do not feel that I am sufficiently 
familiar with their profiles and flight to make a certain identification. 
Perhaps a further study of skins will help. 
The hawks were also difficult of identification. There were large buteos, 
mottled all over, that may have been immature Swainson’s. Red-tails were 
numerous and easily identified. There was one ferruginous rough-leg in 
characteristic plumage, and he looked almost as big as the eagles. The 
marsh hawk and American rough-leg were also there. One hawk looking 
like a pigeon hawk but with a rather erratic fast flight was thought by Mr. 
Greenwalt to be the Mississippi kite, which nests there, but Mr. Drummond, 
one of the men with an unusually well-trained eye and good knowledge of 
birds, did not agree; it was early in the season for it anyway. Sparrow 
hawks were few, and one or two Cooper’s and sharp-shinned were seen. 
The scissor-tailed flycatcher was a great attraction with his beautiful 
gray body, salmon pink flanks, and long tail feathers. It was a treat to 
see him launch forth from a fencepost and volplane back with that trailing 
tail. High winds gave him some trouble now and then. 
The meadowlarks intrigued me. The early arrivals were smaller and 
definitely grayer than ours, with no yellow in the cheeks and but little in 
the supraorbital line. They all sang the song of the eastern species. A 
little later the western arrived, larger, with brighter yellow which in some 
came up on the cheeks, and with yellow in the supraorbital line, singing the 
characteristic song of the western. I think the song is the best field dis- 
