Some Florida Herons 49 



see into such an assembly. While neither the Louisiana 

 Heron nor the Little Blue were strictly speaking " plume " 

 birds, yet because of their habits of nesting- in colonies of 

 considerable numbers thereby offering easy prey to the mur- 

 derous demands of fashion, their numbers were greatly re- 

 duced during the years when plumes and other feather orna- 

 mentations were in vogue. 



I had been familiar with these two species all over the re- 

 gion about St. Marks, along the rivers, at ponds and pools 

 inland or along shore, away out in the open piney woods in 

 the season of continued rains when hundreds of these birds 

 may be seen walking or rather wading through grassy plains 

 now inundated, but it was not until the early summer of 1912 

 that I came upon a nesting colony of either. 



On May 23 of that year I collected a female Louisiana 

 Heron from which a fully developed egg was taken. The 

 bird was shot along the coast some eight or ten miles west 

 of our lighthouse and near what is known as Shell Point 

 beach. No opportunity for a search for the colony occurred 

 until June 26, but numerous birds of the species were seen 

 in the immediate vicinity prior to May 23. On the later 

 named date about twenty pairs of Louisiana Herons were 

 found about one mile from Shell Point on a small island 

 about three-quarters of a mile off shore. The nests were 

 placed in the lower branches of a narrow fringe of bushes 

 that bordered one side of the island and were about 

 as one might expect of a bird of this family. They were 

 constructed almost if not exclusively of the common round 

 salt marsh rush and were extremely frail. Several broken 

 egg shells were found on the ground, some of which had 

 doubtless been rolled out by force of wind or the careless 

 handling of the old birds, as the nests were noticeably flat 

 and afforded but slight security to the contents. At this date 

 most of the nests contained eggs, mainly three in number, a 

 few held two each, one contained six eggs, while one held 

 two young birds seemingly about one week old, and another 

 had three young, two of which were of about the same age 



