566 Fleisher, Birds of S. E. North Carolina. [o" t k 



first glance. I was rounding a "point o' woods" on the beach 

 early in the morning of April 15 when I caught sight of a great 

 pink bird about 100 yards away. I had barely time to feast my 

 eyes on him through my 8-power binoculars when he discovered 

 me and flapped off, flying directly past me toward the sea, then 

 turning and making for another part of the island. According 

 to Chapman, these birds in the eastern United States, are "con- 

 fined to the most inaccessible swamps in Florida." However, 

 when I told Captain Willis of the Smith's Island Life Guard Sta- 

 tion of my find, he said that he had seen two of these birds "last 

 summer." He could not remember just when, but he gave me a 

 good description of the birds and a circumstantial account of the 

 conditions under which he had seen them. They had impressed 

 him as they were the only large pink birds he had ever seen on 

 the island. 



The only herons observed on the island were the Great Blue 

 Heron (Ardea h. herodias), the Louisiana Heron (Hydranassa t. 

 ruficollis) and the Little Blue Heron (Florida caerulea), a few of 

 each; and there were no indications that herons had nested there 

 recently. Although I saw eleven species of Limicolae, it was 

 apparently too early for large flocks like those that occur on 

 Long Island, New York, a few weeks later. Nor did I realize 

 my expectation of meeting the great north-bound army of warblers 

 and other migrants. In fact, with few exceptions the transients 

 observed were those that usually occur in the latitude of New 

 York during the last week in April, i. c, about a week later. 



Rivaling Smith's Island in interest for me was my trip to the 

 heronry on Orton Lake. Lying about midway between Wilming- 

 ton and the mouth of the Cape Fear River is this beautiful body 

 of water with its temples of buttressed cypress trees. The owner 

 of the lake, a typical Southern gentleman, takes great pride in his 

 herons, and I was not at all offended when he told his colored 

 servant, who was to be my guide, not to leave me alone with the 

 birds. I must have been rough-looking in my dusty clothes and 

 knapsack. Accompanied by two servants and the ubiquitous 

 Ford, I was quickly driven to the edge of the lake and then rowed 

 and poled between trees. The heronry, or what I saw of it, con- 

 sisted of two parts: The Great Blue Herons and some of the 



