Mr. H. E. Dresser on the Birds of Southern Texas. 319 



tunate, as I was told that I should find the eggs of the Stilt and 

 Avocet on an island some distance along the coast. We went 

 along West Bay, and, having a head-wind, it took us nearly all 

 day to get to the islands towards the end of the bay. We 

 examined several, but obtained nothing excepting a couple of 

 eggs of the Least Tern {Sterna frenatd) , which I found just above 

 the drift-stuff in a slight depression in the sand. Pelicans 

 were common, but had already hatched; so we got no eggs. 

 On the islands we noticed the following birds : — Garzetta can- 

 didissima, Herodias egretta, Ardea herodias, Demiegretta ludo- 

 viciana, ^gialites vociferus, Strepsilas interpres, Recurvirostra 

 americana, Himantopus nigricollis, Symphemia semipalmata, Plotus 

 anhinga, Chroicocephalus atricilla, Sterna aranea, S. regia, S. 

 wilsoni, S. frenata, Rhynchops nigra, and Sterna fuliginosa, of 

 which latter I only saw a couple. We drew up our boat on 

 one of the small islands, and, collecting some drift-wood, soon 

 had the kettle boiling over a roaring fire, and with a itw fish 

 we had caught, and some other food we had with us, made 

 a good meal, and turned in for the night on the soft sand. 



The next morning we were up bright and early, and com- 

 menced examining some of the islands, but found nothing but 

 a few eggs of Wilson^s Tern until the afternoon, when, seeing a 

 flock of Gulls and Terns at some distance, Gifford told me we 

 had a chance of getting something there. We sailed to where 

 we saw the most birds collected (a small island off the main 

 island); and on our landing, hundreds of birds rose up. I 

 marked a Laughing Gull up, and, on going there, found a nest 

 containing three eggs, and, further on, took four or five more 

 nests and some eggs, which at first I could not identify ; but 

 later I marked a bird, and shot it. On examination it proved 

 to be Sterna aranea, the Gull-billed or Marsh-Tern. After 

 taking most of the eggs we found here, we proceeded to an 

 island further on, where we noticed a few Egrets {Garzetta 

 candidissima) and Louisiana Herons {Demiegretta ludoviciana) , 

 and on reaching the island they rose in such numbers as to fill 

 the air above us. Here we had no lack of eggs, as we found 

 at least from two to three hundred nests of D. ludoviciana at 

 one end of the island. The nests, clumsily and heavily built of 



