54 



THE MUSEUM. 



parently saying: "What right have 

 3'ou to come on wr land?" It is sur- 

 prising the number of squirrels that 

 are in these places and you have only 

 to keep quiet a fe\V minutes and they 

 will come forth making the woods 

 alive with their chatter. But we must 

 not stop, as it is getting late for it be- 

 comes quite hot here in the middle of 

 the day even at this date. 



Passing in succession great ham- 

 mocks and open pine land, the latter 

 the home of the Go'pYier {Gopherits 

 polypliemiis) we come to a road turn- 

 ing to the left and down this we drive. 

 We must be near our destination. 

 Hush! what was that noise.' Did you 

 hear it.-" There it is again. Ah! there 

 he goes, a beautiful Egret — his long 

 plumes fluttering in the breeze. A 

 few hundred yards further on finds us 

 at a good hitching place and we alight 

 with our egg bo.xes. Ten minutes 

 afterward we are down at the edge of 

 the pond. 



What a sight! White Herons, Blue 

 Herons, Little Herons, BigG Herons 

 all fly up together in one mass, croak- 

 ing and scolding at our intrusion. 

 They fly around several times but fin- 

 ally alight in the tops of nearby pine 

 and cypress trees, all the while keep- 

 ing up an incessant racket. Mac and I 

 boldly wade in and scramble up to a 

 nest, from which we saw a Little Blue 

 Heron fly a few minutes before, and 

 take the four beautiful eggs found 

 therein. Mac is greatly excited, for 

 there arc nests to the right of us, nests 

 to the left of us and nests in front of 

 us. Now and then he steps in a 'gait- 

 or's' hole, but with much splashing 

 gets on his feet again. We take sev- 

 eral sets of eggs of the Snowy and 

 Little Blue Herons. These are of 



three and four eggs each, although I 

 found a set of the latter species con- 

 taining Si-ccn eggs, but two birds must 

 have nested together. The difference 

 between the eggs and nests of the 

 Snowy Heron and those of the Little 

 Blue Heron is as follows: the former 

 builds its nest — a mere platform of 

 sticks with a slight depression for the 

 eggs — in the tops or higher branches 

 of the bushes. The eggs, generally 

 four in number, 9re slightly pointed 

 and of a light bluish-green color. The 

 latter builds its nest in the lower 

 branches and lays from three to five 

 round, bluish-green eggs. 



A short distance from the pond we 

 found a small colony of Reddish Eg- 

 rets nesting by themselves. Their 

 nests are similar to those of other 

 herons. The eggs are easily identified 

 elliptical in shape and of a light bluish- 

 green color. 



Wishing to obtain a farewell glance 

 at the pond, I climbed a cypress tree 

 and looked out. A beautiful sight 

 met my gaze. The contents of some 

 of the nests were like little balls of 

 cotton (the young of the Little Blue 

 Heron are always white) and otheis 

 contained beautiful bluish-green eggs 

 so precious to a collector. The old 

 birds getting bolder come and sit close 

 to their nests. What a contrast. 

 White and blue all intermingled. 

 After wishing many, many times for a 

 camera I came down to find Mac vigor- 

 ously fighting the "cussed things" 

 (mosquitoes) as he calls them. 



At 4:30, after eating luncheon and 

 resting awhile, we start for home, 

 leaving behind many pleasant thoughts 

 of a delightful trip. 



Frederick Davis, 

 Gainesville, Fla. 



