160 BULLETIN 135j, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



located in the central and highest part of the island where the ground 

 is hard and dry. In and around the pelican colony is an extensive 

 growth of prickly pear cactus in more or less dense thickets, mixed 

 with a few stunted mesquites and sunflowers. Here we found quite 

 a large colony of reddish egrets and a few Ward herons with nests 

 in the prickly pears, on the ground or 2 or 3 feet above it. At the 

 time of our visit. May 29, most of the egrets' nests still contained 

 eggs, but some held small young. 



The largest colony of reddish egrets in Texas, probably the largest 

 in North America, is on Green Island which lies 30 miles north of 

 Point Isabel in Laguna Madre. I could not spare the time to visit 

 this Island but Capt. R. D. Camp told me considerable about it and 

 it has been well wi'itten up by others. Perhaps the best description 

 of the island and its inhabitants is by Alvin R. Cahn (1923) who 

 writes: 



On the morning in question our investigations were confined to the outskirts 

 of the vegetation, with excursions along the two paths which Mr. Camp had cut 

 through the brush. It was this time that I learned the exact nature of the island 

 tOjWhich I had come. I had been warned that the vegetation was thick, that there 

 were cacti and "other things" with prickers; that I ought to wear leather trousers, 

 leather gloves, and a leather coat — which would have been utterly impossible 

 because of the heat. I was prepared, therefore, to find a tangled growth on the 

 island, but down in the bottom of my heart I had doubted whether the brush 

 could be as bad as reported. I had not been on the island five minutes, however, 

 before I realized that the great problem in photographing the birds would be to get 

 near them, for this mass of brush in which the birds nest is nothing but a huge pin- 

 cushion armed with a million needle points, projecting in every direction, at every 

 angle, and at every height. The bushes, some 8 or 10 feet high, are mostly a vicious 

 species of Condalia, exceedingly branched and covered with short, very stiff, very 

 sharp thorns that tear the skin painfully and cling to the clothing in a most annoy- 

 ing fashion. Amomg the Condalia, are scattered luxurant examples of the famous 

 Yucca, or Spanish dagger, which grows about breast high, appearing as a great 

 sheath of long, firm daggerlike leaves tipped with a thorny substance sharper 

 than a Victrola needle. It was one of these villainous thorns that gently pierced 

 mj'^ knee cap and made me a very stiff, sick, and unhappy mortal for three days. 

 Beneath the Yucca, lies a substratum of Opuntia, the prickly-pear cactus, running 

 vinelike over the ground, bristling like an angry porcupine, and, porcupinelike, 

 ready to shed hundreds of needles into anything that comes in contact with it. 

 Under the cactus I believe was the ground, though I do not recall ever having 

 seen it. 



As far as the eye could reach the bush tops were alive with graceful forms. 

 Reddish egrets and Louisiana herons were everywhere, the marvelous grace of 

 their ever-changing postures exciting constant wonderment. In a far corner a 

 few pair of black-crowned night herons had their nests hidden in a particularly 

 dense thicket, and appeared for a moment only as they hurriedly escaped at our 

 least approach. Ward herons sprang from their nests with a great squawk as we 

 advanced, and disappeared on heavy wings over our limited horizon. Here and 

 there in the heart of the tangle we could get a glimpse of a secretive form of won- 

 drous white as some snowj' egret or reddish egret in the immaculate plumage of 

 the white phase slipped silently from a hidden nest. Through the underbrush we 



