Nesting of the Roseate Spoonbill in Florida 



BY R. D. HOYT, FLORIDA 



ON the morning of March 22 we are going to visit a colony of Spoonbills 

 situated on an island in a large lake back of Cape Sable. Between 

 our camp on the bay and the lake is five miles of prairie, so-called, but in 

 reality a marsh covered with a thick growth of marsh grass, a few inches of 

 water, and some mud which we many times tried to investigate the depth of 

 without success. Hip boots were left in camp as they are ugly things to 

 manage when full of water, and when a fellow goes down it makes it easier 

 for the other fellow to pull him out. 



We reach the lake in due time and found a very small scow that had been 

 left by a " gator " hunter some years before ; it is very rotten and full of 

 holes, which we stop with rags brought for the purpose, and it is fixed so 

 that by constant bailing it will hold two of us up for the few minutes required 

 to reach the island. 



I take my place forward with collecting basket between my knees and 

 we were off. Up to this time no birds were in evidence but a sharp turn around 

 a point to our right brings us to the island and into the midst of bird life. 

 Here are the Spoonbills ! A dozen or more sitting on a mangrove bush re- 

 semble a mammoth American Banner rose in full bloom — white, pink and 

 richest crimson with the dark green foliage of the mangroves as a setting is a 

 picture long to be remembered. 



While the scow returns for my companion I work my way through and 

 around the tangle of mangrove roots to the centre of the island and up one 

 of the largest trees where I can get an outlook, and by keeping perfectly 

 quiet the birds soon return to the nests, which are all around me, — Ameri- 

 can Egrets, Anhinga and Spoonbills, all mixed together and looking very 

 much alike except that the Egrets are broader, flatter and more loosely made. 



Some of the Egret nests contain young, newly hatched, and in a very 

 short time the old birds are back feeding them, while those that are brooding 

 quietly fold up their long legs and settle back on the eggs. The sitting An- 

 hingas keep their long snake-like necks moving in every direction and seem- 

 ingly never quiet. 



On the return of the scow we proceed to look up a few sets of Spoon- 

 bill eggs. Some nests are still in course of construction, some contain but 



