A ° ' 1920 ] Fleisher, Birds of S. E. North Carolina. 567 



Egrets (Herodias cgrctia) in one place and the smaller herons in 

 another. All except the Snowy Egrets (Egretta c. candidissima) 

 were busy with nesting. The young of the Great Blue Herons 

 could be heard calling from the nest in the tops of the taller trees. 

 The Egrets were sitting, and in their part of the lake the little 

 Blue and Louisiana Herons left off their nest-building operations 

 to scold us at our approach. Some of the nests in the small trees 

 about us had their clutches of blue eggs, but as no birds approached 

 the nest near us I was unable to determine to which species the 

 eggs belonged. A conservative estimate of the number of each 

 species seen is the following: Great Blue Heron, 150, Egret, 20, 

 Snowy Egret, 8, Louisiana Heron, 50, Little Blue Heron, 75, 

 Black-crowned Night Heron (Nycticorax nydicorax nacvivs), 1. 

 The actual number of herons in the lake area was probably much 

 greater than these numbers would indicate. 



In answer to a question, I was informed that " Dey all goes away 

 in winter, excuse a few of de big ones." 



I spent practically all the daylight hours during the week in 

 the field. With the exception of a few light showers one day, 

 the weather was most favorable, though usually very warm. 



In the annotated list which follows, I give a conservative esti- 

 mate of the total number of individuals of each species seen dur- 

 ing the week. 



Gavia immer. Loon. One individual seen in Cape Fear River, 

 April 15. 



Larus argentatus. Herring Gull. Three, off shore. 



Larus atricilla. Laughing Gull. Nine of these birds were seen, 

 most of them on the river. 



[Sterna maxima. Royal Tern (?). A large tern seen off shore 

 appeared to be of this species.] 



Sterna antillarum. Least Tern. With the exception of the above, 

 these were the only terns observed. There were about 150 of them on 

 the beaches of Smith's Island, April 14 to 16. 



Rynchops nigra. Black Skimmer. A compact flock of 24 flew to a 

 mud flat on my approach and were still there, motionless, when I returned 

 an hour later. 



Phalacrocorax auritus, subsp. Double-crested Cormorant. A 

 flock of five in the river on April 14, and another bird on the 17. 



Pelecanus occidentalis. Brown Pelican. The pelicans, I was in- 

 formed, occur regularly along the Smith's Island shore but rarely go much 

 further north. I saw three flocks of nine, twenty-seven and four birds 



