THE OOLOGIST 



123 



shells. This bird is the connecting 

 link between the rails and herons. It 

 is solitary in its habits and is more of- 

 ten heard than seen, especially at 

 night. It has a peculiar, high wailing 

 note from which it gets its name "Cry- 

 ing Bird," but when alarmed it utters 

 at regular intervals a croak not un- 

 like that of a frog. 



In the thickets along the road were 

 Catbirds, Palm Warblers, a Gundlach's 

 Vireo, Redstarts, Florida Yellow- 

 throats, Anis, commonly known as 

 Black Parrots though they belong to 

 the Cuckoo family, Cuban Orioles and 

 Crackles, Melodious Grassquits mem- 

 bers of the flinch family, and a Cuban 

 Tody. This last is a small bright 

 green bird with a large, flycatcher- 

 like bill, a Vermillion patch on the 

 throat, breast and belly white, sides 

 tinged with Vermillion and some blue 

 in the wings. It certainly lives up to 

 its scientific name, Todus multicolor.!' 

 Its note is like hitting two small 

 stones together. 



Back in the woods Cuban Parrots 

 were screeching, the West Indian 

 Mourning Doves cooing, and yet a good 

 many people claim that there are no 

 birds here. 



Arriving at the grove the Cuban 

 Meadowlarks were just beginning to 

 whistle while a few Turkey Buzzards 

 were circling about adding all that 

 had been lacking to a typical morning 

 in this southland. A. C. Read. 



A Trip to Pine River, Isle of Pines. 



Wednesday morning, July 12, 1911, 

 a survey party of six set out for Pine 

 river to take soundings and stake out 

 the channel preparatory to opening 

 the harbor. We met at Commodore 

 Cleland's and from there the run down 

 the Xuevas River to the mouth, a dist- 

 ance of f-eur miles was very interest- 

 ing, as well as beautiful. The upper 

 river has good banks lined with Royal 



Palms, palmettos and hard wood jun- 

 gles while back a short distance were 

 open pine woods among which were 

 seen (Cuban) Quail, Meadowlark, 

 Sparrow Haws, Kingbirds, Pewees, 

 Ground Doves, Red-bellied Woodpeck- 

 ers, and Parrots. In the jungles were 

 Cuban Crackle, Isle of Pines Trogons, 

 Isle of Pines Lizard Cuckoos, Cuban 

 Pigmy Owls and Anis. The West In- 

 dian Mourning Dove and Pigeons (Col- '^ 

 umba inornata) were also plentiful. 

 The lower river is wide and lined with 

 mangroves. The bird life here is al- 

 most entirely aquatic, although some 

 land birds were seen flying across. 

 But one West Indian Tree Duck was 

 seen. White Ibis were abundant, Lit- 

 tle Blue Herons, Green Herons and 

 Limpkins were also in evidence. 



The twenty-mile sea trip was most 

 enjoyable, but practically no birds 

 were seen except several hundred 

 Florida Cormorants. We arrived at 

 Pine River about 2:30 p. m. About 

 half a mile up the river it widens out 

 into a large bay or sort of inland lake 

 a mile long by a half wide. This is 

 surrounded by a mangrove swamp 

 ranging in width from 150 feet to over 

 1600 feet. This basin ranges in depth 

 from five feet to over fourteen feet, 

 and is full of large flsh. Several croc- 

 odiles were also seen. Besides the 

 birds recorded on the first part of the 

 trip were added. Black-crowned Night 

 Herons, Yellow-crowned Night Herons, 

 Cuban White Herons, Cuban Green 

 Heron, Cuban Crane, Ward's Heron, 

 West Indian Killdeer, Antillian Night- 

 hawks, White-crowned Pigeons, Yel- 

 lowfaced Grassquits. and Red-legged 

 Thrush. There was a fine moon on 

 the night of the 12th and over the 

 still waters it was almost as light as 

 day. The water fowl were seen and 

 heard a great deal during the night, 

 but of course nothing was identified. 

 We finished our work and got back 



