94 The Wilson Bulletin — No. 87 



young had hatched at that date. Many of the nests were 50 and 60 

 feet up in the cypress trees, but others were found in low bushes beside 

 lagoons. 



2. Anas ftdvigula fulvigula. Florida Duck. Observed feeding on the 

 marshes, but no direct evidence of nesting obtained. 



3. Aix sponsa. Wood Duck. A common resident in and about the 

 cypress swamps. One nest found April 18th in a Pileated Woodpecker 's 

 hole about 30 feet up in a large pine. It contained nine eggs neatly 

 covered with down. Birds not observed about nest. 



4. Ajaja ajaja. Eoseate Spoonbill. This species is right on the 

 danger mark. I doubt if there are more than 50 or 60 birds in the 

 several rookeries in the interior of Lee County. There were not over 

 ten or twelve pairs at Corkscrew, about a similar number at the principal 

 rookery of the Ocaloacooche Slough, and a few are to be found at the 

 other important rookeries. Nesting usually begins in February. 



5. Guara alba. White Ibis. Observed feeding in considerable num- 

 bers on the Corkscrew marsh during March. They nest during April 

 and May, and at Corkscrew they use the elders and button-wood that 

 fringe the inner circle of the swamp. 



6. Mycteria americana. Wood Ibis. This species forms the bulk of 

 the population at each of the principal rookeries of the Big Cypress, 

 region, and its abundance can be readily inferred from my remarks as to 

 the number nesting at the Corkscrew rookery. Nesting usually begins 

 in January and by March 1st the young are as a rule all hatched. The 

 number of eggs is usually three, occasionally four. This bird is a 

 splendid flier and it is a fine sight to watch them filing in from the 

 feeding grounds, floating high in the air on motionless pinions like 

 great kites, for in their power of flight they are comparable to the 

 raptores rather than to the heron tribe. 



7. Ardea herodias wardi. Ward's Heron. Fifty or sixty pairs were 

 nesting in the Corkscrew rookery, as a rule in company vrith the Egrets. 

 Their huge nests are fully twice as large as those of the latter. They 

 are early breeders, usually beginning family duties in January. Also 

 observed nesting in company with Little Blue and Louisiana Herons in 

 willow bushes in ponds. 



8. Herodias egretta. Egret. The Long White has succeeded in 

 maintaining itself in the face of constant and relentless persecution, for 

 here it has the Seminole Indian as well as the white plume hunter as an 

 enemy. Annually in February the birds gather at the old accustomed 

 rookeries, build their nests and perhaps lay their eggs, and then the 

 plume hunter appears. Each is so anxious to beat the other to it that 

 they scarcely give the birds a chance to get a few sticks piled together, 

 as my guide put it. A few birds are killed, not many, as the birds are 

 wary until the eggs are advanced in incubation or the young hatched. 

 Then they desert the rookery and try it somewhere else, with more than 

 likely the same result. A cattleman told me of coming onto a small 



