LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN" PETRELS AND PELICANS. 281 



nets," and large flocks of white ibises, wood ibises, cormorants, and 

 a few glossy ibises fly back and forth over the marshes, especially at 

 morning and evening. 



Here we found, on April 18 and 21, 1902, several small breeding 

 colonies of water-turkeys in small isolated clumps of willows or on 

 the borders of the larger willow islands inhabited by the various 

 herons. There were never more than 8 or 10 nests in a group, which 

 were placed from 5 to 15 feet above the ground or water and were 

 very conspicuous; we generally saw the anhingas sitting in the tree- 

 tops and sometimes saw them on their nests as we approached. 

 The nests were easily recognized, as they were always loosely built, 

 often quite bulky and irregular in shape and always showed a large 

 quantity of brown, dead leaves mixed with the sticks in the body 

 of the nest. The nests were generally carelessly built, mostly of 

 Avillow twigs and coarse sticks, mixed with the dead leaves, which 

 gave them a ragged appearance; they were profusely lined with 

 green willow leaves. The date of laying must vary considerably, 

 for we found eggs in all stages of incubation, from incomplete sets 

 of fresh eggs to full sets of four or five, and young birds, some 

 recently hatched and others nearly grown. 



In the locality described above the anhinga's nests were segre- 

 gated in groups on the outskirts of heron rookeries or were in small 

 rookeries by themselves, but they are often found mingled with 

 various other species in the large rookeries. In the great Cuthbert 

 rookery in southern Florida, which occupies a small mangrove 

 island in Cuthbert Lake, we estimated, on our first visit on May 1, 

 1903, that the population consisted of about 2,000 Louisiana herons, 

 1,000 white ibises, 600 Florida cormorants, 200 anhingas, 100 little 

 blue herons, 18 American egrets, and 12 roseate spoonbills; the 

 total, about 4,000 birds, was really a wonderful population for so 

 small an island, and I have no doubt that the estimate was well 

 below the actual figures. The water-turkeys' nests were scattered 

 among the ibises and cormorants nests in the red mangroves and 

 mostly over the water; they were similar to those described above 

 and in most cases contained from three to five eggs, though there 

 were also J^oung of various ages. 



Mr. Cliarles R. Stockard (1905) describes the nest of this species, 

 as he has found it in Mississippi, as " rather loosely constructed of 

 sticks and very shallow, suggesting at once the architectural style 

 so commonl}^ employed by the herons," apparently unlined and with- 

 out leaves. Other writers have referred to nests lined with willow 

 catkins, cypress needles, and Tillandsia. The water-turkey returns 

 to the same nesting site and probably uses the same nest year after 

 year, which may account for the presence of dead leaves in the nest, 

 the remains of previous years' linings. 



