254 BULLETIN 135, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Sandhill cranes formerly in the collections of the Charleston Mu- 

 seum and reported to have been taken on the Waccamau River, South 

 Carolina, were probably wanderers of this race. 



Egg dates. — Florida: 89 records, January 28 to August; 45 records, 

 February 23 to March 21. 



Family ARAMIDAE, Courlans 



ARAMUS VOCIFERUS VOCIFERUS (Latham) 

 LIMPKIN 



HABITS 



''The voice of one crying in the wilderness" is the first impression 

 one gets of this curious bird in the great inland swamps of Florida. 

 While exploring the intricate channels, half choked with aquatic 

 vegetation, that wound their way among the willow islands in the 

 extensive marshes of the upper St. Johns, we frequently heard and 

 occasionally caught a glimpse of this big, brown, rail-like bird; it 

 peered and nodded at us from the shore of some little island, or went 

 flying off with deliberate wing beats over the tops of the bushes; 

 once one perched on the top of a small willow and looked at us. 



The limpkin, or crying bird, as it has been called most appro- 

 priately, was once very abundant in Florida, but for the past 40 years 

 or more it has been steadily decreasing in numbers. It is so tame 

 and unsuspicious, almost foolishly so, and it flies so slowly, that it 

 has been an easy mark for the thoughtless gunner who shoots at 

 every large bird he sees, especially if it is good to eat. The flesh of 

 the Umpkin has been much esteemed as food and in many places it 

 has been hunted as a game bird. It was decidedly scarce when I was 

 in Florida, in 1902, and had practically disappeared from all regions 

 within easy reach of civilization. 



T. Gilbert Pearson, who has recently been investigating the status 

 of the limpkin in Florida, writes to me: 



In May, 1921, 1 left Leesburg, Florida, in a motor boat, crossed Lake Griffin and 

 descended the Oklawaha River to its confluence with the St. Johns River, 

 During this trip of three days, in which a constant lookout was kept for limp- 

 kins, only 11 individuals were seen and another was heard calling one morning 

 near our camp. Three of the birds were so tame that it would have been very 

 easy to have shot them from the boat with a .22 rifle. In one case we passed 

 within 40 feet of a limpkin sitting on a dead limb. The noise of the motor boat 

 did not even cause it to leave its perch. Natives along the river told me the 

 bird was excellent for food and some years ago it was not an uncommon custom 

 to shoot 20 or 30 before breakfast. On March 30, 1923, 1 secured a small boat 

 at the town of Kissimmee and traveled southward through a series of three lakes 

 until we entered Kissimmee River. This we followed to its mouth in the waters 

 of Lake Okechobee River. Five days were spent on the trip. Limpkins were in 

 evidence and very noisy. Although weather conditions as well as the surround- 

 ings and methods of our travel were very favorable for seeing the birds along the 



