28 THE WILSON BULLETIN— March, 1921 



were nesting' in the pond on Ossabaw island at the time of 

 my visit there in May, 1915. Because of the similarity 

 between their eggs and those of some other species of 

 herons breeding there, it was not possible for me to ac- 

 curately determine which nests belonged to tliese herons 

 except by remaining concealed until the birds had settled 

 on them. This required considerable patience, as, although 

 they were not as waiy as the larger Egrets, after I had 

 entered the pond and frightened them from their nests, 

 long waits in concealment were necessarj'^ before they would 

 return. All of the nests that were identified were built 

 in willows in which were placed many nests of the other 

 species of herons which were breeding in the pond. They 

 were simply rudely constructed platforms of twigs loosely 

 arranged in a circular manner. The eggs were three in 

 number, bluish green in color. They measure about 

 1.80x1.25. 



I made a number of efforts to determine the character 

 of the food of this species, but the data secured is meager, 

 due chiefly to the difficulty in approaching the birds close 

 enough for satisfactoiy observation. Besides this the very 

 few pairs nesting in the pond distributed themselves, when 

 feeding, over the large swampy and marshy areas on the 

 island, and were rarely encountered. The limited notes 

 secured lead me to believe that a considerable percentage 

 of their food consists of crawfish, while individuals were 

 detected on several occasions catching small fish swimming 

 near the banks of tlie small creeks. 



This species does not breed at any other locality, al- 

 though suitable ponds exist on some of the other large and 

 isolated islands. During the past ten years this s])ecies 

 has ra])idly decreased in numbers and it is now rare in 

 this county. 



[to be continued] 



