in the Peninsula of Florida. 



199 



speared, and the line hauled in, he shows fight, and tries to climb 

 into the boat. 



Three miles from Smyrna there is a small mangrove-covered 

 islet much frequented by Ardeidce. George Sheldon said that 

 they bred there, and that we should find some nests. We land 

 and get up to our knees in mud, but without result. As yet I 

 have seen no signs of birds breeding about Smyima, except Eagles 

 and Fish-Hawks. Further south the birds, no doubt, nest much 

 earlier than they do up here. 



Willets are plentiful about Smyrna. Two examples which I 

 skinned are so entirely dissimilar in size and plumage as to ap- 

 pear to be of two distinct species. I took them to the Smith- 

 sonian Institution at Washington, but Professor Baird gave it 

 as his opinion that they were merely varieties of the same spe- 

 cies, caused by age. I adhere to my previously formed opinion 

 for the following reasons, which I conceive to be conclusive, even 

 setting aside the difference of size and plumage. Both varieties 

 are common, either in parties or pairs. I never saw them inter- 

 mLxed, but always separate. The pair which I shot this morning 

 were of the ordinary type of Symphemia semipalmata, as were all 

 the others about the island. The larger variety was also plenti- 

 ful on the river ; but if the two happened to be feeding together 

 on the mud-banks, they separated on rising *. 



April 8. — Out in the morning for my last trip to Smyrna, and 

 returned unsuccessful. I have certainly been unlucky here. In 

 the first place, Sheldon has been so constantly in attendance in 



* Mr. Taylor has shown me his specimens, and there are, I must say, 

 considerable differences in the two birds. As far as I can tell without exa- 

 mination of a large series of specimens, I should be inclined to consider 

 them distinct. The larger variety seems to have already been called by 

 Cuvier Totanus speculiferus (Regn. An. ed. 2, i. p. 531 ; Pucheran, Rev. 

 et Mag. de Zool. 1851, p. 369), and should therefore be termed Symphemia 

 speculifera. The dimensions of the species, as compared with S. semipal- 

 mata, are as follows, in inches and decimal parts : — 



—Ed. 



p2 



