170 BULLETIN 135, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



in Florida. Here we found, on April 18, 19, and 20, 1902, some large 

 colonics breeding on the willov/ islands in this great morass, which we 

 could reach only by pohng a skiff through many acres of dense, 

 aquatic vegetation. These little islands were thickly covered with 

 small willows, averaging about 12 or 15 feet high. In some cases 

 the Louisiana herons nested in colonies by themselves, but in other 

 cases they were associated with a few water turkeys, snowy egrets, 

 many Uttle blue herons, and a pair or two of yellow-crowned night 

 herons. The Louisiana herons far outnumbered all the other species 

 and occupied the central portions of the rookeries. Their nests 

 were built in the willows in every available spot and at every height 

 from 2 to 12 /eet above the ground, often several nests in the same 

 tree ; they were neatly and well made of small sticks and smoothly 

 lined with fine twigs. Most of the nests contained four or five eggs 

 and one held six. There were no young at that date. 



In Monroe County we found the Louisiana herons everywnere 

 abundant, breeding in all the inland rookeries, as well as on many 

 of the mangrove keys. At the Cuthbert rookery they formed at 

 least half of the colony, where we estimated that there were about 

 2,000 of them. Their nests were found everywhere, aU through the 

 rookery, but they were especially abundant in the interior, often 4 

 or 5 and sometimes 10 nests in a tree; most of them were from 6 to 

 12 feet from the ground in the black and red mangroves, a few being in 

 the buttonwoods. At the time of our visit, on May 1, 1903, fully 

 three-quarters of the nests held young birds of various ages. The 

 nests were small, irregular in shape, and loosely built of small sticks, 

 but well lined with twigs. 



On many of the islands off the coast of Louisiana we found breed- 

 ing colonies of these herons. Most of the young had hatched and 

 many had flown away when I was there late in June, 1910; but 

 Captain Sprinkle told me that, earlier in the season, he had estimated 

 that the largest colonies contained from 500 to 1,000 birds. One 

 small colony, of about 50 pairs, stiU had eggs on Battledore Island. 

 They were nesting in a row of low, black mangrove bushes which grew 

 around the borders of a small marsh. The nests were from 2 to 5 

 feet above the ground. The mangroves were covered with white 

 blossoms, among which the herons made a pretty picture. And all 

 around them were populous colonies of laughing gulls, black skim- 

 mers, Caspian, royal, Forster, and common terns; it was a great 

 collection of noisy neighbors. 



Along the coast of Texas, in 1923, we visited a number of colonies 

 in which Louisiana herons were breeding and in which this species 

 usually predominated, but in all cases two or more other species 

 were breeding with them. On Vingt-une Island, in East Galveston 

 Bay, described under the snowy egret, we found a colony which, we 



