Gbe Warbler 59 



one egg, but we find a number containing full sets of 3 and 4 and one with 

 5 e gg s > which is an unusual number. The latter nest being a very perfect 

 one is taken in situ, and is now in Mr. Childs' collection. 



More light is needed on the building habits of this species. From per- 

 fectly reliable sources I know that they have nested in January in the cy, 

 press swamps east of Cape Romano, and on March 26 we took a specimen on 

 the way home among the Ten Thousand Islands that was evidently 

 but two or three weeks from the nest. Near my old home on Old Tampa 

 Bay numbers of young birds arrive by May 1st and these of course are from 

 a much earlier nesting than the rookery we visited at Cape Sable in the lat 

 ter part of March. 



I might add here that the Spoonbill is rapidly diminishing in numbers 

 from no apparent cause, as they are not, like the Egrets, being extermi- 

 nated for their plumage. Ten years ago several hundred spent the summei 

 in the Bayou near my home ; these have grown less year by year until 

 last season I could count but forty individuals. 



