174 



THE OOLOGIST 



NESTING OF THE CASPIAN TERN 

 AND THE SNOWY HERON 



By Dr. R. W. Shufeldt, C. M. Z. S., 

 Fellow of the Amer. Ornithol. Union. 



A number of our terns breed along 

 the great stretch of coast of southern 

 Louisiana which is washed by the 

 waters of the Gulf of Mexico, and 

 among them we meet with the Cas- 

 pian or Imperial Tern (Sterna caspia). 

 As to the nidification of this fine spe- 

 cies, Coues stated in his "Key to North 

 American Birds" in North America it 

 is irregularly distributed, not only dur- 

 ing the extensive migrations but also 

 during the breeding season; known to 

 breed at various points on the Atlantic 

 Coast from Texas, in the interior, 

 from Great Slave Lake to Lake Michi- 

 gan, Nevada and California, but sel- 

 dom observed on the Pacific Coast. 

 Eggs 2-3, in hollow scooped in dry 

 sand without nest, 2.65—2.75x1.80— 

 1.90, broader and more elliptical than 

 those of S. maxima, with smoother 

 and harder shell; ground color pale 

 olive-buff, evenly marked all over with 

 small spots of dark-brcwn and laven- 

 der. Breeds commonly by single 

 pairs. (Key to N. A. Birds, Ed. V., 

 vol. II, p. 1005). 



Quite recently Mr. Edward A. Mc- 

 Ilhenny, of Avery Island, Louisiana, 

 kindly presented me with a beautiful 

 series of photographs of certain birds 

 and their nests as they occur in 

 southern Louisiana; among them is 

 one of the nest of the Snowy Heron 

 and another of a beach scene on the 

 shores of the Gulf of Mexico, where 

 some seventeen Caspian Terns had 

 deposited their eggs — that is, there 

 are about that many indicated in the 

 picture herewith reproduced. Pre- 

 sumably the colors of these were as 

 described above by Coues, and this 

 likewise applies to what he stated 

 about their form. The three beautiful 

 sets in the lower right hand corner 



of the cut distinctly show the exca- 

 vation, in each case, made by the bird 

 In which she deposited her eggs. In 

 most all the others the eggs appear 

 to have been laid direct on the hard 

 sand, with no attempt to make a hol- 

 low in it. As thus deposited it is 

 quite evident that these eggs are at 

 the mercy of any bird or mammal that 

 cares to feed upon them, and doubtless 

 such depredations frequently happen. 



I met with Caspian Terns breeding 

 in the Floridas and Bahamas Islands 

 as far back as the spring of 1864, and 

 there were thousands of them, it be- 

 ing the days antedating those of the 

 "plume hunters." A number of other 

 species of Terns, Gulls, Skimmers, 

 and others, resorted to the same lo- 

 calities for the same purpose. On 

 Doublehead Shots Key the eggs of 

 such birds were deposited in such 

 numbers and in such close proximity 

 to each other, that one had to be very 

 careful how he stepped around among 

 them lest he crush them under foot. 



As will be noted in the accompany- 

 ing illustration, the Snowy Herons 

 had built their nest in the thick foli- 

 age of a "black mango tree," and de- 

 posited it in four bluish white eggs. 

 The nest of this bird is truly a very 

 rough and ready structure, rather af- 

 ter the order of a nearly flat platform, 

 the basic portion being composed of 

 very coarse, shortish sticks, with still 

 shorter and more slender ones for the 

 lining, there being no soft material 

 whatever used for the latter. A great 

 many lovely blossoms, apparently of 

 the tree upon which this nest rests, 

 are to be seen all about it — silent 

 testimonials to the taste of the build- 

 er. 



The description of the eggs of our 

 American Herons left us by Coues are 

 quite unsatisfactory and inexact, while 

 he is correct when he states that the 

 nest is always "a large flat rude struc- 

 ture of sticks." It is a well known 



