WORITE AMERICAN MARSH BIRDS 15 



flopping up ahead of us, drifting around the island and floating over 

 us; and mingled with them were circling water turkeys, soaring 

 turkey vultures, and hovering fish crows, ready to pounce on 

 unprotected eggs. 



We landed on the island and found it much like other islands of 

 its class in southern Florida; it was not over two acres in total extent, 

 with not over an acre of dry land in the center. The dry land was 

 covered mainly with black mangroves, mixed with some white 

 button-woods; it was surrounded by a wide belt of red mangroves 

 growing in the mud and water, which was 3 feet deep at the outer 

 edge. 



The nesting sites of the roseate spoonbills were in the densest part 

 of the red mangroves among the nests of the white ibises. On my 

 first trip to this rookery, on May 1, 1903, we saw only 12 spoonbiUs 

 in the colony and found only three nests, one containing a single 

 heavily incubated egg, one a handsome set of three eggs and the 

 other holding two downy young, not quite half grown. The nests 

 were all on nearly horizontal branches of the red mangroves, near 

 the edge of the water, and were from 12 to 15 feet above the mud 

 or water. They were easily recognized as they were quite different 

 from the other nests in the rookery; they were larger than the nests 

 of the ibises or the small herons and were made of larger sticks; 

 they were about the size of a water turkey's nest, but were more 

 neatly made without the use of dead leaves, so characteristic of the 

 latter species. The nests were deeply hollowed and were lined with strips 

 of inner bark and water moss. At the time of my second visit, on 

 March 29, 1908, the spoonbills had increased to 75 or more, but we 

 were too early to find them well along with their nesting. A number 

 of nests had been built or were in process of construction, but only 

 four contained fresh eggs; there were one set of four, one set of three 

 eggs and two nests with one egg each. All of the nests were grouped 

 together, well inside the rookery, in the densest and most shady 

 portion and placed on the lower branches of the red mangroves with 

 more or less water or soft mud under them. The nest containinfi; 

 the set of four eggs was about 10 feet up on a horizontal branch; it 

 was a large nest of course sticks, lined with finer twigs and with the 

 dead and yellow leaves of the red mangrove; it measured 16 inches 

 in outside diameter, 7 inches inside and was hollowed to a depth of 

 about 2 inches. The other nests were similarly constructed. 



One of the principal objects of my trip to Texas in 1923 was to 

 find the breeding grounds of the roseate spoonbills; many observers 

 had seen them in flocks at various points along the coast, but their 

 nesting places had not been discovered. We were told that they 

 nested on the islands in the bays, where the herons breed; and George 

 Finlay Simmons said he had found nests and young birds on one of 



