120 BULLETIN 135^ UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



twigs, rootlets, and grass. I collected a set of three and a set of four 

 eggs that were nearly fresh, but most of the nests contained young 

 of various ages, some of which were nearly as large as their parents. 

 There was a black vulture's nest in this colony and another near it. 

 We took the eggs from the first nest and killed the half grown young 

 in the other. 



At various other points along the coast we found small groups of 

 Ward herons' nests in practically every heron rookery that we visited 

 on the islands and on the mainland. They were nesting in close 

 proximity to and in perfect harmony with American egrets, reddish 

 egrets, snowy egrets, Louisiana herons, and black-crowned night 

 herons. Nests were placed on the ground, on prickly pears, in low 

 bushes, or in trees; but usually the commanding positions or the high 

 spots. In the big white ibis rookery, described under that species, 

 in Victoria County, the Ward herons' nests were in the tallest live 

 oaks and elms, 40 or 50 feet from the ground. In all of these rook- 

 eries the Ward herons were not particularly shy; they frequently 

 returned to their nests near my blind and did not seem to mind it much 

 more than the smaller species did. Many of the rookeries were in- 

 fested with swarms of great-tailed grackles; the trees and bushes 

 were full of their nests; and many of the larger herons' nests, par- 

 ticularly those that had been used for several years and were built 

 up quite high, held one or two grackles' nests in their lower stories. 

 I believe that the same nests are used year after year, new material 

 being added each year, until ultimately they become very large. 



Dr. A. H. Cordier has sent me the following notes on some Ward 

 herons' nests found by him in Texas : 



Before visiting Big Bird Island in the Laguna de la Madre I had never seen a 

 great blue heron's nest on the ground. Here I found several. Thej- were huge 

 affairs, built of coarse sticks and grasses carried from the main land a few miles 

 away. The nests showed evidence of having been occupied for several seasons. 

 Like an eagle's old nest the base showed evidence of decay, while the super- 

 structure was made up of recently added sound sticks. One of the nests I 

 measured was 4 feet high and 33^ feet across its foundation and 3 feet at apex. 

 The nest cavity was 12 inches deep and 18 inches across. Some of the nests were 

 mere shallow affairs with a layer of grass and weeds on the ground, surrounded 

 with cacti, and in the midst of a colony of breeding brown pelicans. When one 

 of these graceful long legged birds returned to its ground nest, it landed usually 

 a few yards away. With majestic poise, dignified mien, it approached the nest 

 with measured strides. Its crested head and streaming breast plumes stamped 

 the bird as the aristocrat of Big Bird Island's bird population. To stand within 

 a few feet of the threshold of one of these big birds as it strides leisurely toward 

 its pleading, hungry young is an event ever to be pleasantly remembered. 



Eggs. — The eggs arc similar in appearance to those of the northern 

 form. The measurements of 72 eggs average 65.4 by 46.4 millimeters ; 

 the eggs showing the four extremes measure 76.5 by 47. G7.7 by 61.6, 

 59.7 by 45, and GO.o by 43.5 millimeters. 



