100 



ORNITHOLOGIST 



[Vol. 10-No. 



usually immaculate, to be stained by the over-ex- 

 cited ovi-ducts of the parent may exist is purely 

 conjectural." 



Dr. James S. Bailey cited an instance of hybri- 

 dity between a Dominique Cock and a Guinea 

 Hen. The eggs were not differcnl from those of pii re 

 Guiiiea-fowl parentage; they hatched, but the 

 time of incubation and the coloration of the 

 chicks were affected. One of the latter came to 

 maturity and was substantial evidence of the un- 

 natural fecundation. I quote from Dr Bailey: 

 "It is a well-known fact that members of the Finch 

 family cross, as the Goldtiucli and Canary, but it 

 is positively known that the color of the eggs is 

 not changed from that peculiar to tlie parent bird 

 which lays them." According to Dr. Brewer, 

 "Audubon claimed to have taken spotted eggs of 

 the Three-toed Woodpecker." 



My conclusions are: 1. Natural hybrids are 

 rare, most cases being traceable to domestication. 



•i. Hybridization is known not to change the 

 characteristics of eggs. 



3. Abnormities are known to arise from iiatiu- 

 al causes, and I should regard the eggs mentioned 

 by your correspondent as merely a freak of na- 

 ture, explainable by Dr, Brewer's hypothesis. 



[As bearing on this question of Hybridization, 

 we insert the following from Hardwicke's 

 '•Science-Gossip'" (No. 340, page 149). Referring 

 to the Royston or Hooded Crow, (C'orviis corni.r). 

 "Mr. Henry Seebohm, a great authority on orni- 

 thological questions, and well versed in the habits 

 of migratory birds, makes out a strong case 

 against the Royston Crow for its dispsition to in- 

 terbreed with the Carrion Crow and other mem- 

 bers of the family. The opinion of so accurate 

 an observer is of course entille.l to the higliest re- 

 spect, and yet it is not a little singulir that the 

 present representatives of the Hooded Crow, as 

 they are caught in the neighborhood of Royston 

 Heath, arc as distinctly specitic as any of their 

 predecessors, with the same distinct light grey 

 mirkings as of old, and no perceptible traces of 

 hyl)ridii'.ation. Indeed, I am informed by Mr. 

 Norman, a naturalist, whose business of taxider- 

 my, and that of his father before him, has for a 

 jioriod of sixty years enjoyed a more than local 

 repute, that although many specimens of the local 

 and general rane ams have passed through their 

 hands, j^et during the whole of that period only 

 one specimen of the Hooded Crow has ever come 

 under their notice showing traces of hybridization. 

 With this there was the uncertain element of its 

 being a young bird ; but on being submitted to Jlr. 

 Gold, of London, it was pronounced by him to be 

 a hybrid, and the result of interbreeding between 

 the Royston and Carrion Crows. This specimen 



is now in the collection of Lord Braybrooke at 

 Audley End. With but this solitary piece of evi- 

 dence in so long a period, my informant naturally 

 asks, "Where do the hybrids go, if there is such 

 an interbreeding?" The point is one that I must 

 leave to those more competent to deal with. It 

 is not likely, however, that such an accurate and 

 patient observer as Mr. Seebohm would counte- 

 nance such a theory without the fullest justifica- 

 tion ; but if the Carrion Crow is generally as rare 

 as it is now becoming in the home counties, his 

 local namesake, if he persist in his ways, will have 

 to seek an alliance with the more numerous rook 

 family. But common fairness compels me to ad- 

 mit that, at least, as he is seen in his Winter 

 quarters, Corvtis comix may fairly claim that his 

 family escutcheon is comparatively untarnished, 

 and that he can boast the same bold markings and 

 motley plumage as of old." — Ed.] 



A Florida Heronry. 



On the (Uli inst., I left Orlando in company 

 with 5Ir. J. L. Mott, to visit his place on Lake 

 Gentry, in Brevard county, Fla. The inducement 

 held out by Mr. Mott was that he would show me 

 the largest bird rookerj' in the State, which 

 promise I am hapjiy to slate was to my own satis- 

 faction completely verified. The rookery men- 

 tioned coverean entire eighty acre tract of ground, 

 of which Mr. Mott is the sole owner and possessor. 

 This tract has from time immemorial been the 

 nesting place of countless myriads of water fowl, 

 and the immense amount of bird guano deposited 

 there is almost incalculable. I made an examina- 

 tion of the deposit in many places throughout the 

 rookery, and do not feel that it would be exagger- 

 ating in the least to state that one million barrels 

 would not contain the guano that has been de- 

 posited, and still remains, on theeighty acre tract. 

 In fact, so large has been the deposit that the 

 natural outlet of Lake Gentry, which flows 

 through the rookery, has been choked by it to 

 that extent that tlie water in the lake has been 

 raised from two to three feet above its natural 

 level. In regard to the statement made that this 

 was the largest bird rookery in the State, I will 

 state for the benefit of any unbeliever (if such 

 there be), that I have followed the practice of 

 hunting Florida birds for their plumage, during 

 the proper season, for the past fourteen years, and 

 during that period have visited almost every 

 rf)okery of any note in the State, often being gone 

 from home for months at a time, and have never 

 bctore seen a bird rookery extending over more 

 than three or four acres. I was at the rookery 

 during the greater portion of three days ; went all 

 over it, impelled by a proverbial Yankee curiosit}', 



