270 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1954 



It is possible that the four birds noted by Watson were the same 

 reported by Mrs. Hanies at Key West about 2 months earlier. Wat- 

 son's area is some 30 to 40 miles east, and the Key West birds were seen 

 on November 7, 1953. It may well be that they were wandering east- 

 ward along the Key chain in a leisurely manner. Mrs. Hames ob- 

 served one bird later in the spring, March 29, 1954, at Key West. 



The cattle egret again nested at King's Bar, Lake Okeechobee, in the 

 spring of 1954. Warden Chandler was watching this locality from 

 mid-April and reported to the writer late in that month that the birds 

 were present in the rookery. A trip was made there on May 1 and 

 birds were seen at the nests. Early in May the second nesting locality 

 for the species was found about 200 miles north of Lake Okeechobee. 

 On May 2, 1954, Dale Eice, of the Department of Biology, University 

 of Florida, found an adult feeding three young in a nest at Lake Alice, 

 part of the university campus, Gainesville, Fla. He estimated that six 

 birds were "using the rookery." He did not state whether this repre- 

 sented three pairs, but such is assumed. He had been watching the 

 area for some time, knowing that cattle egrets were in the vicinity, and 

 believing that they would breed there. He adds that they were not 

 there last season ( 1953 ) . ( For further nesting data in 1954 see below. ) 



Before going further in the year it should be noted here that one 

 more new locality was established about this time, this being the State 

 of New York. On May 20 a single specimen was seen on a turkey farm 

 near East Moriches, Long Island, by LeRoy Wilcox. This informa- 

 tion was given to the writer by Richard A. Sloss, of Woodmere, Long 

 Island, in a letter dated June 7, 1954, which stated in part, "The bird 

 had appeared here approximately four days previous to this date (May 

 20) and disappeared early the following week. His diet consisted 

 mainly of angleworms." 



PANAMA 



There have been several sight records for the Canal Zone by Maj. 

 Francis O. Chapelle and Eugene Eisenmann (unpublished) and for 

 the Province of Panama by David Fairchild. Reports from a reliable 

 native hunter to A. Wetmore indicate that the bird was present in 

 considerable numbers in 1954 in the savannas near Pacora. 



NESTING 



From the rather meager data hitherto available, this much can be 

 said regarding the nesting of the species in the United States. It 

 has congregated with other herons in normal rookery procedure, liv- 

 ing in close proximity to snowy egrets, little blue and Louisiana 

 herons, anhingas, boat-tailed grackle, limpkin, gallinules, and Florida 

 ducks. The nests are the usual platforms of dead sticks hardly more 

 substantial than those of its heron neighbors. 



