ELISHA MITCHELL SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY. 21 
nearly every nest signs of eels remains were seen, the 
-young birds upon becoming excited would disgorge frag- 
ments of eels.” The old birds which were taken usually 
had the slime of eels about their heads, necks and bills. 
The trees, which contained each a number of nests, were 
completely covered, trunk, limbs, twigs, and nests, with 
a white coating caused by the fishy excrement of the 
birds. So white and marked an aspect did the trees 
present that although they were not usually over twelve 
or fifteen feet in height their outline could clearly be 
made out against the dark background of the cypress 
swamp as we passed in our canoe along the south side 
of the lake five miles away. 
On Jones’ mill pond near Newport, Carteret Co., cor- 
morants were commonly reported to breed, but a search 
of the region failed to reveal anv colony. This location 
is nevertheless evidently a popular roosting resort. <A 
little before sundown on the day I visited it cormorants 
began to come in over the swamp and in a short time two 
or three hundred individuals had gathered in the cypress 
trees along the shores of the pond. 
Anhinga, Water Turkey, (Anhinga anhinga). This 
is another bird which we may now add to the list of the 
avifauna of North Carolina. It isa bird of a tropical 
and subtropical America and has been known to breed as 
far north as South Carolina. 7 
In damming up a stream on the Orton rice-plantation 
in Brunswick Co. fifteen miles below Wiimington, a pond 
was formed which extends back into the woods among 
the higher ridges for several miles. At the upper end 
of one of these narrow tongues of water is located a col- 
ony of some four or five hundred pairs of herons, which 
each year assemble to breed in the cypress trees. 
While approachine this heronry on the 7th of June 
an anhinga was flushed from its nest in a small cypress 
tree about ten feet above the water. It flew rapidly 
