i892.] Scott on the Birds of the Caloomhatchie Region. 2\t^ 



other, and as this area includes almost impassable swamps of the character 

 above indicated, and, as the birds are not at all conspicuous, having 

 much the habits of the smaller Rails, manj have doubtless escaped the 

 observation of the few collectors who have worked in this field. 



Himantopus mexicanus. — Breeds in this region. Eggs have been 

 taken on Sanibel Island and on the Kissimmec River near where it enters 

 Lake Okeechobee. 



Meleagris gallopavo osceola.— This is still a very abundant bird in this 

 part of Florida, though said to be diminishing in numbers every jear and 

 to be not nearly so plentiful as it was ten or fifteen years ago. During 

 my stay at Fort Myers from November till March, the open season, the 

 birds were constantly offered for sale in the markets, the price being on 

 the average ten cents a pound for dressed birds. A hen Turkey could 

 generally be bought for from seventy-five cents to a dollar, and a gobbler 

 for from a dollar to a dollar and a half. Only a few years back the reg- 

 ular price paid to the hunters was twenty-five cents each. This I was 

 told by many reliable people who had lived there a dozen years or more. 

 I obtained without difficulty a series of more than thirty, and could readily 

 havesecured five times as many. This series bears out fully the charac- 

 istics on which the subspecies was based. All of the birds that passed 

 through my hands whether for the collection or the table, were carefully 

 weighed; full-grown gobblers exceeded twelve pounds in weight for the 

 smallest individual, while the largest weighed a little over twenty-two 

 pounds. The hens weighed from four and three-quarters to a little 

 over nine pounds. These results were obtained from weighing rather 

 more than seventy individuals. 



These birds breed at this point from the first week in April to May 

 first, but mating begins shortly after March first, and gobblers begin to 

 gobble late in February. 



Capt. Menge, who has had great experience with these birds, told me 

 that he had killed gobblers on more than one occasion, which had two 

 beards or tassels on their breasts instead of one as is usually the case. Hen 

 birds sometimes possess small appendages of this sort. 



It would seem that these bird«, living as they do at this point in 

 cypress swamps and 'bay heads,' have a natural protection that will not 

 allow of their absolute extermination, but unless the exceedingly good laws 

 passed by the last legislature of the State are carefully enforced, the Wild 

 Turkey, still very abundant in this region, is doomed to become in a few 

 years as rare as it has already become in the northern part of Florida. 



Polyborus cheriway. — A common species, especially on the upper part 

 of the river. Occasionally observed about Fort Myers where it resorted 

 with Cathartes aura and Cat/iarista atrata to the slaughter houses and 

 pens. On the large prairie to the north of the river, and not far from Fort 

 Thompson, these birds were quite common, and in early April I found 

 three nests in one day's collecting, though not devoting particular atten- 

 tion to such search. Two of the nests were in cabbage palmettos, twen- 

 ty-five to forty feet from the ground, and were very like in structure to 



