NORTH AMERICAN MARSH BIRDS 171 



estimated, contained about 800 Louisiana herons, 400 snowy egrets, 

 and 150 black-crowned night herons. The Louisiana herons' nests 

 were mainly in the tall canes which bordered the marsh, though 

 many of them were in the small huisache trees and bushes, as well 

 as in the prickly pear cacti. Some of the nests were on or close to 

 the ground and others were at varying heights up to 6 feet. Besides 

 the usual nests of sticks, there were many nests made wholly or in 

 part of the dead and dry stems of the canes; fine strips or bits of 

 cane were generally in use as nest linings. 



One of the largest two rookeries seen was at Wolf Point, in Karan- 

 kaua Bay, at the lower end of Matagorda Bay, which we visited on 

 May 10, 1923. This was a densely populated rookery, on dry land, 

 in a thick growth of willows, husiache, and other small trees, with 

 dense thickets of thorny underbrush. The bulk of the population 

 consisted of Louisiana herons, which arose in a great cloud as I entered ; 

 there were certainly several thousand of them. Among them were 

 several hundred snowy egrets, a few pairs of reddish egrets and 15 or 20 

 pairs each of Ward and black-crowned night herons. Two or three 

 pairs of black vultures were living in the rookery and the place was 

 fairly alive with countless thousands of great-tailed grackles. 



The other big rookery, visited two days later, was on Roses Point 

 in La Vaca Bay. It was also on high dry land and was so well hid- 

 den in an extensive forest of mesquite and huisache that it took 

 us sometime to find it. It was fully as large and perhaps much 

 larger, as it was difficult to outline its limits. Besides several thou- 

 sand, perhaps many thousand, Louisania herons, there were many 

 snowy egi'ets, Ward, and black-crowned night herons, and some few 

 reddish egrets. And, last but not least, I have never seen great- 

 tailed grackles so thick as they were here; they fairly swarmed 

 everywhere and the trees were full of their nests, sometimes scores of 

 nests in a single tree. The herons' nests were mostly well up toward 

 the tops of the trees, from 10 to 15 feet from the ground. 



In the rookeries on the chain of islands, between San Antonio 

 and Mesquite Bays, Louisiana herons were nesting abundantly among 

 the reddish egrets and snowy egrets, in low bushes, 1 or 2 feet high, 

 in the rank herbage and almost on the ground. On Big Bird Island, 

 in Laguna Madre, they nested in a small colony by themselves in a 

 tract of tall weeds. Hero they had well made nests of dry weed 

 stalks, straws, and grasses. 



C. J. Pennock, under the name of John Williams (1918), describes 

 an interesting colony, which ho found near St. Marks, Florida, as 

 follows : 



In preparing to leave the island in a row boat, a landing was made across a 

 small cove from the line of bushes that had formerly been used as nesting sites 



