15 



Gallinago Wilsonii. In a small, dry pond near Enterprise, I 

 saw some dozens. On the 20th of April they all seemed to be 

 paired, and from the lateness of the season seemed as if they 

 were going to remain in the vicinity. 



Hiynantopiis 7iigricoUis. In a little creek about a mile from 

 Enterprise, I found every year a number of pairs of Stilts. Its 

 flight, which resembles generally that of the Greater Yellow 

 Shanks, is swifter and more irregular. 



Ibis alba. I saw no Scarlet or Glossy Ibises while in Florida. 

 At Indian River the White Ibises were very numerous, flying up 

 and down the river every day. Specimens, shot as late as the 

 20th of April, were in the midst of the spring moult, and had not 

 commenced laying that year. On the St. Johns I saw one large 

 flock in the neighborhood of Volusia, but none at Enterprise. 



Tantalus loculator. I visited two breeding-places of this 

 bird ; the first was in a large cypress swamp at the head waters 

 of the St. Sebastian, a small stream flowing into Indian River 

 about twenty miles north of Fort Capron. The trees here were 

 more than a hundred feet in height, and I could not by any 

 means at my disposal get access to the nests. The Ibises here 

 were breeding in company with the large white Egret. At the 

 other breeding-place I was more fortunate. I was informed of 

 this by Capt. Dummet of New Smyrna, who told me that he had 

 visited it some five or six years before, and that he presumed no 

 other white person had ever done so. It is in the cypress swamp 

 forming the southern border of Lake Ashby, a small sheet of 

 water about fourteen miles from Enterprise, near the New 

 Smyrna road. The moment the boat which I had had hauled 

 there was launched, the alligators assembled for the purpose of 

 examining the new visitor ; and before we had arrived at the 

 breeding-place there were more than fifty following the boat, the 

 nearest almost within reach of the oars. On shooting a bird, the 

 instant it touched the water it was seized by an alligator ; and I 

 was obliged to kill half a dozen of these creatures before I could 

 secure a specimen, and even after this I was generally obliged to 

 fire one barrel at the bird and the other at the nearest alligator. 



There were probably a thousand pairs nesting here ; every 

 available spot on the tops of the cypresses had been taken pos- 

 session of by a pair of Ibises, and lower down were numerous 



