Vol. XXI 



1904 



1 Bent, Nesting Habits of Florida Herodiones. 2 C 



The principal breeding ground of the Roseate Spoonbills was 

 a great morass on the borders of Alligator Lake, a few miles back 

 from the coast near Cape Sable, where the mangrove islands in 

 which the birds were nesting were well protected by impenetrable 

 jungles of saw grass, treacherous mud holes, and apparently bot- 

 tomless creeks. The various members of the heron family were 

 nesting here in countless numbers. White Ibises, Roseate Spoon- 

 bills, Louisiana Herons, Snowy Herons, and American Egrets ; 

 one might toil here for many hours and never get beyond the sea 

 of nests and hosts of young birds in all stages of growth ; the 

 area was too vast and the traveling too difficult to arrive at any 

 reasonably accurate estimate of the numbers of birds breeding in 

 this great rookery. The Spoonbills were here in abundance and 

 had eggs and young in their nests in all stages, as well as fully 

 grown young climbing about in the trees. The old birds were 

 tamer here than at Cuthbert Lake, and even allowed themselves 

 to be photographed at a reasonable distance. 



The Spoonbills will probably be the next to disappear from the 

 list of Florida water birds ; they are already much reduced in 

 numbers and restricted in habitat ; they are naturally shy and 

 their rookeries are easily broken up. Their plumage makes them 

 attractive marks for the tourist's gun, and they are killed by the 

 natives for food. But fortunately their breeding places are remote 

 and almost inaccessible ; and through the earnest efforts of the A. 

 O. U. wardens they are now protected. It is to be hoped that 

 adequate protection in the future will result in the preservation of 

 this unique and interesting species. 



Guara alba. White Ibis. 



The White Ibis, or ' White Curlew ' as it is called by the natives, 

 is universally abundant throughout all portions of Florida that I 

 have visited, but especially so in the southern portions of the 

 State. Both this and the preceding species are highly esteemed 

 by the natives as food ; the old birds are shot at all seasons and 

 the young are taken from the nests in large numbers. 



The ' conchs ' and negroes of southern Florida also eat the 

 young of all the smaller herons and do not draw the line even at 

 young cormorants. 



