168 The Wilson Bulletin — No. 81. 



Ibis are nearly always devoid of any great number of fish. 

 However, lack of fish is not always due to lack of Ibis as we 

 have a class of men in Florida who trap lakes and catch any 

 fish that they can sell, and this means almost anything from 

 three inches and up in length. However, lakes that have not 

 been bothered with this class of fishermen and also have not 

 had the Ibis there are poorly stocked with fish. 



Orange Lake has been fished with traps continually but 

 with the thousands of Ibis and Herons that use the lake as a 

 reservation have kept the crayfish down to such an extent 

 that there are more fish today in Orange Lake than in many 

 years. There are several thousand acres of marsh around 

 this lake and this has given the fish plenty of places to spawn. 

 As young fish eat millions of mosquitos it stands to reason 

 that with Ibis and Herons we have more fish and less mosquitos, 

 and any bird that does so much good to a State is of very 

 great value and should be protected for that reason alone. 



This past Summer we had six days of continuous rain and 

 I noted in one field of about three acres on the edge of the 

 lake that had been planted in squash over two thousand 

 Ibis walking around, turning over the squashes and catching 

 grasshoppers, and from the eagerness with which they 

 hunted they were having good luck. Grasshoppers do mil 

 lions of dollars damage to the crops of the Florida farmers, and 

 any bird that does this great good is the farmer's best friend. 



One Glossy Ibis male that I dissected contained: 14 cut- 

 worms, 12 . grasshoppers, 19 small crayfish, part of small 

 moccasin, 1 black bug of some description. 



Adult Little Blue Heron had in its stomach : 51 grass- 

 hoppers, 2 small frogs,, 3 cut-worms, 1 small lizard, remains 

 of three crayfish. 



Adult Green Heron had in its stomach : 6 small crayfish, 

 16 grasshoppers, 2 cut-worms, remains of small frogs. 



Adult Lousiana Heron had it it's stomach nothing but 

 grasshoppers too far digested to determine the number but 

 evidently about 200. 



