THE OOLOGIST. 



241 



numerous and the water so swift and 

 shallow, it was impossible to navigate 

 the boat, so all hands jumped out, up to 

 our knees in the swift water, where it 

 was very hard to keep your footing, and 

 with two of us at the bow and two at 

 the stern, we succeeded by lifting, haul- 

 ing and dragging, in making about 200 

 yards more. We had no.w gotten away 

 from most of the rocks and were among 

 a series of small islands covered with 

 trees and undergrowth, and could trav- 

 el with ease as the water was deeper, 

 not so swift and in some places quiet. 

 Turning the point of a little island, we 

 came in sight of Buzzard Island which 

 was about 50 yards further. As soon as 

 we came in sight hundreds of Vultures 

 rose from the trees on the island with a 

 noise almost like thunder and soaring 

 round and round, gradually rose until 

 they looked like a swarm o f 

 bees against the blue heavens. A low 

 sand bar projected from one end of the 

 island for a distance of about 300 feet, 

 and this was also covered with Vultures 

 pluming themselves and hopping about 

 in their awkward, ungainly manner. 

 As we approached the bar to make a 

 landing they rose and either alighted 

 among the small trees on the numerous 

 small islands or soared away to the sky 

 in their cork-screw fashion. I noticed 

 that they were nearly all Black Vul- 

 tures, the Turkey Vultures being very 

 scarce. I think there were a hundred 

 of the Black Vultures to one of the oth- 

 er species. 



Numbers of -the birds remained in the 

 trees on the island and watched us curi- 

 ously as we made our way among the 

 dense underg"owth and canes. It was 

 almost impossible to stand erect as the 

 reeds and vines were matted together 

 and we were forced to crawl along on 

 onr hands and knees through the well 

 defined paths which the birds had made 

 through the canes. These paths wound 

 around in every direction all over the 

 islaud, and had it not been for them I 



doubt if we could have made our way 

 at all. I had crawled about 30 yards 

 through the canes when I came upon 

 two young Vultures cuddled up togeth- 

 er in a slight depression in the ground, 

 gazing' stupidly at me. They were 

 about half grown and were covei'ed 

 with white downy feathers. While I 

 was looking at them I heard a yell frem 

 one of my companions as he announced 

 that he had bagged a set of eggs. This 

 was immediately followed by a similiar 

 yell and announcementfrom another of 

 the party about 20 yards off. I pushed 

 forward a few feet further when I was 

 rewarded by a set of two eggs which 

 were laying on the bare ground by an 

 old log. The eggs are a dirty white, 

 spotted and blotched all over with lav- 

 ender and brown and are generally, 

 somewhat larger than those of the Tur- 

 key Vulture. Having tied them up in 

 my handkerchief I pushed on aud after 

 finding another pair of young birds and 

 numerous nests which had recently 

 been occupied, I bagged another set of 

 eggs. My companions were more suc- 

 cessful and when we reached the other 

 end of the island, which was only about 

 500 feet, they showed up with 3 and 4 

 sets, respectively. 



They had also found several young 

 birds and old nests, which were only 

 slight depressions in the ground wilhout 

 any attempt at lining, except the dead 

 cane leave , which covered the island. 

 The ground was almost white with 

 bones of birds, chickens and small ani- 

 mals carried there by the vultures, 

 which would seem to indicate that the 

 place had been used by these birds as a 

 breeding and roosting place for years. 



On the way back to the boat I found 

 another set, which made a total of ten 

 sets or twenty eggs. Our guide had 

 preferred to remain in the boat as he 

 had explored a portion of the island the 

 day previous and was not sufficiently 

 interested in bird eggs to put up with 

 the almost suffocating, musky odor 



