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July, 1919 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL NOTES CEDAR KEYS, FLORIDA Our first stop to collect, November 6, was at Cedar Keys, on the west coast of the peninsula, which we reached by train from Baldwin on the direct line to Jacksonville. The island not proving a very desirable collecting ground, Mr. Maynard and his wife took the steamer to Key West on a prospecting trip, while I'continued to collect birds about Cedar Keys, and Mr. Weeks continued to sketch. After a few days I made the acquaintance of the engineer of a con- struction train which made daily trips out into the pine barrens and hummocks of the mainland, and this proved most fortunate. By making use of the train, through the courtesy of the engineer, I was enabled to secure many desirable birds, including a number of one species I was never to see again in its native haunts, the Carolina Paroquet, the subsequent extinction of which curious and beautiful species must cause a pang of regret in the heart of every true bird lover. While in Cedar Keys we experienced a "norther" which in the almost fire- less condition of the town afforded a more accurate idea of life in the polar re- gionp than I have ever known since. Much of the less hardy vegetation on the island was frost-killed, and, although the temperature of the coastwise waters was lowered only a few degrees, vast numbers of fish were killed and east up on the beach. January 2, the party was reunited at Key West, which had proved very unremunerative collecting ground. Upon the strength of information obtained by Mr. Maynard we took passage on a sponger, "The Explorer", and, after four delightful days among the Keys, in which the plankton of the Gulf Stream revealed some of its wonders, we found ourselves at Miami, which was to prove our headquarters for several months. REACH MIAMI ON THE EAST' COAS Miami was then but a wilderness, and where today is a populous winter resort, then there were only two or three houses on the south bank of the river. and none at all on the north bank, save what remained of the officers' quar- ters and barracks, relics of the government buildings that dated back to the days of the second Seminole war (1835). Major J. V. Harris, a native of Mis- sissippi, who had served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War, was in possession of the north bank of the river, and he and his wife lived in the most easterly of the old quarters, while we rented from him the other two. Between its hummocks and its surrounding pine woods, Miami proved in- viting territory, and we collected birds with such ardor and success that I have never thought of the place since without experiencing symptoms of that emo- tion, not overcommon among bird collectors, remorse. It w?as with much pleasure, therefore, that I read Bradford Torrey's account of his stay in the place many years later, from which it appears that Nature in her own good time set about repairing the damage we had done in our efforts to secure "good series" of the birds of the locality. Torrey's list shows that few if any of the species we found there are now missing, while not a few species not present in our time have come in as the result of changed conditions, as the presence of gardens,. parks, and imported tropical vegetation. THE EVERGLADES We extended our researches across Biscayne Bay to the ocean beach, and up the Miami to the Everglades by means of a row:boat, which, in addition to