1892.] NATUKAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 103 



completed, with a rush of wiugs aud a glorious burst of color, they 

 arose. Many other detachments joined them until the entire flock 

 numbered about six hundred. Most of these alighted some two 

 miles ofl", while a few returned to their former feeding ground. All 

 of these birds, including the young, were moulting. The adults 

 were just shedding their brilliant scarlet patches, and their skins 

 Avere bristling with pin feathers. Fully one-third were in the whit- 

 ish plumage of the first year. According to Mr. Priour the Spoon- 

 bill attains its maximum plumage development some time in Janu- 

 ary, but he was unable to state whether this was due to a second 

 moult in December, or whether there is merely a wearing away of 

 the tips of the feathers as in Agelaius and other birds. 



The Spoonbills now leave the vicinity of Corpus Christi the latter 

 part of February, and though a few stragglers sometimes remain all 

 the year, none have been known to breed on the Texas coast of late 

 years. This state of affairs is probably due to their persecution and 

 to the destruction of the forests between Corj^us Christi and 

 Brownsville which used to reach nearer the river mouths, afford- 

 ing this formerly abundant species suitable rookery sites.' It 

 is probable that most of the flock of birds seen on Nueces Bay were 

 raised somewhere on the coast south of Brownsville. After rai^^ino- 

 their young in comparative safety, they return yearly to this spot to 

 spend the summer and early winter months, arriving in considerable 

 numbers, even so early as the latter part of April, and attaining 

 their maximum numbers in the latter part of May. Their evident 

 attachment to the vicinity of Nueces Bay must be due to the facili- 

 ties it affords them in the great item of food supply, for the recep- 

 tion accorded these birds by Corpus Christi gunners is far from en- 

 couraging. 



13. Botaurus exilis(Gmel.). Least Bittern. 



How this bird could have been overlooked by former observers I 

 cannot conceive. Several were flushed in the marshes of Nueces 

 Bay and two were secured, one of them a female with distended 

 ovaries. 



*14. Ardea herodias Linn. Great Blue Heron. 

 One seen. 



*15. Ardea egretta GmeL American Egret. 



Three seen. 



^ Merrill and Sennet found a few in a lagoon heronry on the Rio Granie. 



