THE GREAT CUTHBERT ROOKERY 
75 
upon a firmer branch, where he stood very sweetly for his 
picture. I also secured pictures of the adults in flight or 
upon the trees, from the boat. 
Upon their previous visit here, my friends had seen twelve 
of the elegant Roseate Spoonbills flying about, and had 
examined a few nests, containing either three large eggs 
beautifully blotched with lilac, or the downy young of very 
YOUNG LITTLE BLUE HERON. “STOOD VERY SWEETLY FOR 
HIS picture” 
tender age. Now they were all gone, their nests being 
plundered by crows or buzzards. The only trace of them 
I found was a single spoonbill’s egg in an ibis’s nest, with 
two eggs of the ibis. 
The Fish Crow and the Turkey Buzzard represent the pre¬ 
datory forces which are allied with man in waging war upon 
