248 Pearson, Some North Carolina Birds. [^ 



grounds during the entire year of numbers of birds which haunt such 

 regions. In summer hundreds of Herons resort there to feed. There 

 also in summer is occasionally seen the rare bird known to local sports- 

 men as the ' Mountain Curlew.' While up the river some five miles 

 from its mouth I secured on July 26, a specimen of this bird from a 

 flock of three individuals. It proved to be an immature White Ibis. I 

 could get no account from any of the inhabitants of that region of this 

 species having been seen there in its white phase of plumage. This 

 bird has not, I believe, before been included in the avifauna of the State. 



Anhinga anhinga. Anhinga; Water Turkey. — While approaching 

 a colony of Herons on the margin of the large rice-pond of the Orton 

 plantation, on the west side of Cape Fear River, fifteen miles below 

 Wilmington, on June 7, an Anhinga was flushed from its nest in a 

 cypress tree about ten feet'above the water. The bird flew rapidly away 

 for perhaps thirty rods, then, turning, came driving back overhead, only 

 to return shortly from the opposite direction. At each approach it 

 appeared higher in the air until at a considerable altitude, when it began 

 to circle on motionless wings. The bird was secured by hiding near the 

 nest and shooting it when it alighted near. It was a male in magnificent 

 plumage. Another male bird was seen but no females were observed 

 nor were any other nests found. The nest examined was a heavy struc- 

 ture of sticks and twigs, lined with gray moss (Tillandsia usneoides). 

 It contained four badly incubated eggs. I am aware of no previous 

 record of the bird breeding north of South Carolina. 



Phalacrocorax dilophus floridanus. Florida Cormorant. — These 

 birds have for some time been known to spend the summer months on 

 our coast, but it was not until the 25th of last May that I was able to 

 locate a breeding colony. After penetrating the woods, swamps, and 

 fresh-water marshes in Craven County for a distance of ten miles or 

 more from the small railway station of Havelock, I at length reached the 

 beautiful secluded sheet of water known as Big Lake. This body of 

 water is approximately five by seven miles in extent. The shore is 

 lined for two thirds the distance by a dense cypress swamp, the remain- 

 ing third being clothed with a barren pine pocosin. The forest every- 

 where comes down to the \vater*s edge, and many cypress trees and 

 stumps stand out in the lake for a distance of one or two hundred yards. 

 Manv of those trees were capped with Osprey's nests. Along the north 

 side of the lake the Cormorants had their breeding place. Low spread- 

 ing cvpress trees, their tops reaching as a rule not more than twelve to 

 fifteen feet above the water, and standing from fifty to two hundred 

 yards from shore, were the sites chosen for the nests. Eighteen trees, 

 scattered along the shore for a mile and a half, were thus used. A few 

 trees contained only one nest each, some were occupied by two, while in 

 several others six, eight, ten, and twelve were noted. One tree held 

 thirty-eight occupied nests. The number of occupants to the nest, either 

 eggs or young birds, varied from two to three. Many of the young were 



