228 FLORIDA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY I3TH ANNUAL REPORT 



be relatively more numerous in species in a state or similar area 

 than in a whole continent. 



If only nesting birds were counted the results would be some- 

 what different. For only about 33% of our water birds, as com- 

 pared with 56% of our land birds, are known to breed in the area 

 treated; the remainder, except for a few transient or doubtful 

 species, being found here only in winter. So that among the nest- 

 ing species the land birds outnumber the water birds about two 

 to one. 



A few birds of special interest deserve a passing mention. The 

 largest one, the wild turkey, is still found in solitudes far from 

 the homes of mankind, like the bear and deer. 



The Florida burrowing owl {Speotyto Floridana, first de- 

 scribed in 1874) dift'ers from most other birds in living in holes 

 in the ground. It is said to be rather frequent in the Kissimmee 

 River prairies of Osceola, Polk, Okeechobee and DeSoto Counties, 

 and has been found also along the Caloosahatchee River and in 

 Manatee County. The same or a very closely related form has 

 been found in the Bahamas, and it has a near relative in Haiti and 

 another in the western burrowing owl which is a well-known in- 

 habitant of "prairie dog towns" in the Great Plains. Its habits 

 have been described in a few papers referred to in Chapman's 

 Handbook of Birds (p. 317).* 



The Carolina paroquet or "parrakeet'' (Conuropsis Carolin- 

 ensis), a very showy bird that formerly ranged over a large part 

 of the coastal plain from Virginia to Florida, is now making its 

 last stand a little south of our limits, if it is not already extinct. 

 Its handsome plumage caused many specimens to be caught and 

 caged, and at the same time made it an easy mark for gunners, 

 and .there has also been some prejudice against it on account of its 

 supposed fruit-eating propensities. 



The Florida jay { Aphelocoma cyanea, a different genus from 

 the common jaybird of the eastern United States and its Florida 

 subspecies), apparently first observed by William Bartram about 

 1775, and first described scientifically in 1817, is said to be chiefly 

 confined, now as formerly, to the coasts of Florida between lat- 



*See also J. K. Small. Natural History 20:491, 496. "Sept.-Oct." (D!ec) 

 1920. 



