Wayne: Birds of South Carolina. 33 



and mussels, which appear to be the favorite food during the breed- 

 ing season . I secured a nest and three eggs on April 20 , 1 896 , which 

 is a very early breeding date. The nest was composed of sticks, 

 and was placed upon a horizontal branch of a short-leaf pine, 

 forty feet from the ground, and half a mile from water. The 

 eggs usually number three, are bluish green, and measure 

 1.90X1.40. 



On March 23, 1907, I observed a mated pair in a maple swamp 

 near Charleston, and upon shooting one of them, which proved 

 to be the female. I found by dissection that she had already laid 

 two eggs, while the third would have been laid the following day. 

 It must be borne in mind, however, that the winter of 1907 

 was exceptionally mild , and July and August temperatures pre- 

 vailed during the latter half of March. The day on which this 

 heron was shot the thermometer registered 94.2 degrees. This 

 is my earliest spring record and I have no other breeding record 

 earlier than April 20. 



After the breeding season, these birds resort to the salt marshes, 

 and feed chiefly upon fish and "fiddler" crabs. Although some- 

 what solitary in habit, they are sometimes seen in considerable 

 numbers, as on April 15, 1905, when I counted sixteen individ- 

 uals in a radius of ten rods, on a rice plantation owned by Mr. 

 Furman in Charleston county. I consider this bird as much a 

 diurnal species as the Great Blue Heron. 



ORDER PALUDICOL^: CRANES, RAILS, ETC. 



FAMILY GRUID/C: CRANES. 



75. Grus americana (Linn.). Whooper Crane. 



I have never seen this fine species alive and it no longer visits 

 this state, but there was an adult specimen in the Charleston 

 Museum that was taken on the Waccamaw River about 1850. 

 Audubon mentioned in his Birds of America,^ that 



A Mr. Magwood [Col. Simon Magwood] residing near Charleston, in South Caro- 

 lina, kept one for some time, feeding it on maize. It accidently wounded one of 

 its feet on the shell of an oyster, and, although the greatest care was taken of it, 

 died after lingering some weeks. 



The Whooper Crane breeds as far north as Great Slave Lake. 



« V, 193. 



