118 FLORIDA BIRD-LIFE 



their food as do young Pelicans, Cormorants, and all other 

 members of the order Steganopodes with whose habits I am 

 familiar, by thrusting the head down the parent's throat. 

 The stomach of one young bird contained three fish, the 

 longest measuring six inches; in another a catfish was dis- 

 covered. With a family which may vary in size from the 

 newly hatched chick to one a foot or more in length, the 

 problem of securing fish the proper size for the young is 

 evidently more complicated with Water Turkeys than it is 

 with Pelicans. The parent seems to bring a large supply of 

 food ; a female, on one occasion, remained at the nest about 

 an hour and fed her young repeatedly. 



Although they soar with exceptional ease, Water Tur- 

 keys alight very clumsily, virtually tuml)ling on to their 

 perches with much flapping of wings and loss of balance 

 before coming to rest. When not alarmed, they seem to 

 take flight with much hesitation, opening and closing their 

 wings, in preparation, several times before they venture to 

 trust themselves to their support. When alighting near the 

 nest, they always utter their harsh, grating calls which, if 

 another bird chances to be near, is replied to with threaten- 

 ing motions of the sharply pointed bill. But although 

 cpiarrelsome, the}" never get beyond this exchange of com- 

 pliments. 



Fish Crows, one of the greatest enemies of rookery 

 nesting birds were, as usual, present, and looking every 

 inch the thief as they hunted from tree to tree in search of 

 unprotected eggs. At the same time, they cawed loudly ; 

 though why they should thus advertise their presence, un- 

 less it 1)6 to protest their innocence, it is difficult to see. One 

 slipped u]) to a near-by Water Turkey's nest, from which 

 the owners were absent, ([uickly took a blue egg in his bill 

 and, with rapid wing strokes, flew to a cypress to devour it 

 at his ease; then his appetite whetted and coui-age aroused, 

 he came back to the nest and, standing on its edge, ate all 

 the eggs remaining. The Water Turkeys sometimes pro- 



