^°1908^^] General Notes. 313 



the fact that he had noticed a niunber of Mallards (.4 Has boschas), some 

 dead and others that appeared to be sick one day and a day or two later 

 were found dead near the same place. Curiosity had led him to examine 

 several, but he reported no signs of their ever having been wounded. I 

 devoted half a day to a careful study of these singular conditions, with 

 the result that my dog found two dead ducks and caught one that was 

 too sick to fly away. Post-mortem examinations showed no wounds of 

 any kind, but the three stomachs were well filled with duck shot, all evi- 

 dently eaten by the birds by mistake for gravel. One stomach contained 

 nineteen shot, one twenty-two, and the other twenty-seven. The large 

 intestine was heavily leaded and seemed contracted, while the lining of 

 the stomach could be easily scaled off in quite large crisp pieces. The 

 gastric juices had evidently worked on the shot to some extent, as most 

 of them were considerably worn and had taken various shapes. I found 

 a number of remains of ducks that had recently been eaten by hawks or 

 owls, but could not detennine positively the cause of their death. A 

 curious feature of the case is that all of the sick ducks found or reported 

 were Mallards. 



Has such a condition of affairs ever before been reported? If so, I 

 should greatly like to know what the future results are apt to be. — J. H. 

 Bowles, Tacoma, Wash. 



Capture of the Flamingo at Lake Worth, Fla. — A full grown American 

 Flamingo {Phoenicopterus ruber) with very handsome plumage was killed 

 on Lake Worth, Dade County, Fla., in May, 1905. The bird was alone, 

 standing in shallow water, off Shermans Point, and was shot with number 

 four shot, at about thirty yards. It was early in the day, just after a 

 severe storm, and the bird seemed to be dazed, for while I was wading to it, 

 it did nothing but look about, as if about to fly. The specimen is mounted 

 and in the collection of J. J. Ryman and Son, Palm Beach, Fla. — C. P. 

 Ryman, New York City. 



The Snowy Heron in South Carolina. — On May 15, 1908, while ex- 

 ploring certain marshes and sea-beaches in the interest of the Charleston 

 Museum and of the State Audubon Society, I discovered two strong breed- 

 ing colonies of the Snowy Heron (Egretta candidissima) , a species which 

 was believed to be almost if not absolutely extinct on the South Carolina 

 coast. The birds are established on two small islands or 'hammocks' in 

 the salt marshes which are probably at least ten miles distant from each 

 other 'as the crow flies,' and which are being used as breeding places by 

 hundreds of Louisiana, Little Blue, Green, and Black-crowned Night 

 Herons. The total heron population of the smaller hammock, which has 

 an area of about three acres, is estimated at about six hundred, of which 

 probably between one hundred and one hundred and fifty are Snowy 

 Herons; while the number of herons established on the larger island. 



