COLLECTING IN FLORIDA AND THE BAHAMAS 



rufa and exsecta groups, and the forms in whose nests they estab- 

 lish these colonies belong to the more abundant species of the 

 fnsca and pallide-fiilva groups. Another ant of a very different 

 sub-family, namely A phcBnogaster tennesseense, curiously enough, 

 shows a similar reduction in the size of its queens and it too, 

 as certain cases show, in all probability first establishes its colo- 

 nies in the nests of some one of our numerous varieties of A. 

 fulviun. A full account of the temporar}^ parasitism of F. 

 difficilis and of several other species will shortly be published. 



William Morton Wheeler. 



A COLLECTING TRIP TO FLORIDA AND THE BAHAMAS. 



HROUGH the generosity of Mr. Nathan A. Bill of 

 Springfield, Massachusetts, the schooner yacht 

 " Gloria " was placed at the disposal of the Museum 

 in ]\Iay and June for a collecting expedition in the 

 Florida Keys and the Bahama Islands. Professor 

 William Morton Wheeler of the Department of Invertebrate 

 Zoology and Mr. Frank ]\I. Chapman of the Department of Or- 

 nithology and ]\Iammalogy embarked on this vessel at Miami, 

 Florida, May 4, 1904, and on May 31 were joined at Nassau, 

 Bahamas, by Dr. B. E. Dahlgren of the Department of Prepara- 

 tion and Installation. 



Among birds, material for groups of the Roseate Spoonbill, 

 Snowy Egret, Ani or Black Cuckoo and Flamingo were especially 

 desired. The two former, it was hoped to find in Florida, while 

 the latter were to be looked for in the Bahamas. 



The attempt to find the nests of the Spoonbill and Egret 

 resulted in failure. The few Spoonbills known to inhabit an 

 isolated rookery near the southwestern border of the Everglades 

 were reported by the game warden employed by the American 

 Ornithologists' Union and the Florida Audubon Society to have 

 bred at an unusually early date, while the Egrets inhabiting the 

 same rookery had been killed by a band of plume-hunters. It is 

 evident therefore that so long as a single aigrette-bearing heron 

 remains in Florida, it is liable to be pursued for its plumes. As 



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