128 'Qkkv/^tkk A^nCHWMXTSi on Birds o/the Suwa/iee River. [April 



Where pine-clad bluffs reached the river the character of the 

 bird life changed with the vegetation. In the palmetto scrub 

 were Yellowthroats ( Geothlypis) and White-eyed Towhees, or 

 where turkey oaks formed the undergrowth, sweet-voiced Pine- 

 woods Sparrows, Palm, and Yellow Palm Warblers were com- 

 mon, while Red-cockaded Woodpeckers, Loggerhead Shrikes, 

 Pine Warblers, and Bluebirds were generally distributed through- 

 out the pines. 



Early on the morning of March 21, while hunting in the pines 

 we heard in the distance the vigorous squawking of young Her- 

 ons. Following the direction whence the sound proceeded 

 we found, half a mile from the river, a rookery of Ward's Herons 

 situated in a series of shallow, grassy ponds which extended over 

 a considerable area. Stunted cypress trees, growing singly or in 

 groups, were scattered around the shores of these ponds or were 

 well out in the water. Most of the water-surrounded trees held 

 nests, large structures of sticks, some placed in the tops of the 

 trees, others on their lateral branches. Usually there was only 

 one nest in a tree but in several instances we noticed two or three. 

 As a rule we found three or four young Herons in each nest, most 

 of them well grown and fully feathered. A few young birds 

 were already on the wing. Those in the nests stood erect on the 

 framework of twigs, or, in some cases, on the neighboring 

 branches, but as soon as they saw us and suspected danger they 

 sought concealment, squatting low in the nest and remaining per- 

 fectly still as long as we were near them. After we had retired 

 a few hundred yards, they arose again and began calling for food, 

 making a peculiar, loud, hollow, croaking sound. Swinging 

 from the branches near the edge of a nest holding three nearly 

 grown young, was a bird in the last stages of decay, which had 

 died at about the age of one week. 



On the river bird life was not abundant. This was not due to 

 man's presence — we saw less than a dozen cabins from Branford 

 to Fort Fannin which, with Oldtown landing, is the only settle- 

 ment on the river's banks — but rather to the unusual depth of the 

 water near the banks which descended so abruptly as to leave few 

 shoals where water birds could find feeding grounds. Thus Coots 

 {Fulica) and Scaup Ducks {Aytkya affinis)^ generally so nu- 

 merous on the larger and more shallow Florida rivers, were here 

 so nearly wanting that we observed only a single individual 

 of each species. 



