THE OOLOGIST. 



143 



surprise found her setting on the eggs. 

 Thinking it useless for her to set on 

 frozen eggs, I decided to remove them, 

 and tried to "shoo" her off, but she 

 would not "shoo," and with all the 

 pounding and jarring on the stump, 

 and poking with sticks, I could do, I 

 could not persuade her to come out, so 

 I left her to her folly(?). As my wife 

 and I happened by the other day, hunt- 

 ing wild flowers, we peeped in the 

 stump, and to our great astonishment, 

 beheld three young birds. A Mrs. Nut- 

 hatch was caught in a like predicament, 

 and I presume several others. 



I did not learn what became of the 

 Yellow-rumped Warblers during this 

 cold spell, but they are here in force 

 now, along with Black and White 

 Creepers, BeAvick's Wrens, Chippies, 

 and to-day April 1st., a Dove cooes 

 mournfully. Turkeys have gobbled 

 since early in Feb. and will continue 

 till about May 1st. Then their meat is 

 strong and lough, and the females are 

 busy nesting. There are few places 

 better than this to study migration, and 

 from now on, each clay will bring some 

 new arrivals. 



C. E. Pleas, 

 Clinton, Ark. 



The Wood Ibis- 



(Tantalus loculato? 1 .) 



Is found in considerable numbers 

 throughout South Florida, and can be 

 found in droves of from about a dozen 

 to one hundred, usually in the more re- 

 mote cypress swamps and extensive 

 marsh districts, but sometimes in close 

 proximity to settlements. 



They are large and handsome birds 

 standing about four feet high, of the 

 purest white except wing tips which 

 are black, the head, and about six inch- 

 es of the neck is covered with a tough 

 skin devoid of feathers. 



Such is the general appearance of the 



bird, but it is more especially of its 

 nesting habits of which I wish to speak. 

 It was the 23d of March that I started 

 with a friend to hunt for a rookery of 

 which we had neard, we traveled all 

 day with horse and buggy, and put up 

 at a farm house for the night. We were 

 out bright and early the next morning, 

 and after a tiresome drive of several 

 miles through dreary flatwoods and 

 mazes of ponds, we came in sight of 

 the coveted cypress as such a place is 

 called. 



The lake or pond was about I of a 

 mile long and i mile wide, quite deep 

 and clear, and was surrounded with a 

 wide fringe of cypress trees heavily la- 

 den with Spanish moss. 



Out in the center of the lake was a 

 small island about one hundred feet in 

 diameter, Avith about three feet eleva- 

 tion above the water. There were sev- 

 eral large cypress trees besides a thick 

 undergrowth of bay trees. What a 

 sight met our gaze from the shore, the 

 trees on the island were white Avith the 

 Ibises standing close together on the 

 limbs, besides a number of American 

 Egrets, Florida Cormorants and Anhin- 

 gas. 



The Ibises Avere nesting and A\-e could 

 see a number of the birds sitting on 

 their nests. Most of the nests were on 

 the island, but we found two trees near 

 the shore, one had five nests and the 

 other seA r en. 



After looking oA'er the field I pro- 

 ceeded to climb the first tree, a large 

 cypress, the nests were placed fifty feet 

 from the ground and Avere saddled flat- 

 ly on the top the top of a horizontal 

 limb. One limb had four nests in a 

 voav and were so close together that 

 their edges touched. A typical nest 

 Ava-: eighteen inches across by five inch- 

 es deep outside, onlv slightly depressed 

 inside, made of coarse sticks lined with 

 moss and green bay lea\*es. The eggs 

 were chalky Avhite and nearly always 

 blood stained, the aA'erage set is three 



