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Bird - Lore 



ested to note that a Caracara which flew 

 by was carrying its prey in its bill. I do 

 not recall ever before having seen a bird- 

 of-prey bearing food in flight otherwise 

 than in its talons. In the slender, stunted 

 growths of live oak trees about the ranch 

 house, Great-tailed Crackles were clamor- 

 ing in great numbers. The trees held at 

 least a thousand of their nests. 



In addition to this cruise in the boat 

 'Jim Duke,' I visited other points on the 

 lower Texas coast. One of these was a 

 small group of bars lying back of Harbor 

 Island on the northern edge of Corpus 

 Christi Bay and just inside Aransas Pass 

 Inlet. Black Skimmers, Laughing Culls, 

 and Royal Terns made up the colonies at 

 this place. Late one evening I landed on 

 Dead Man Island near Corpus Pass, where 

 a community of at least 2,000 Brown 

 Pelicans were caring for their young. 



For twenty years rumors had occasion- 

 ally reached me of a famous bird-island 

 south of Corpus Christi in Laguna de la 

 Madre. One of my objects in visiting the 

 Texas coast was to search out and examine 

 this island. This was accomplished on 

 May 23, 1920, by means of a shallow draft 

 power boat. The island, or rather islands, 

 for there are two of them, is situated about 

 32 miles below Corpus Christi. Big Bird 

 Island proved to be one of the largest 

 breeding-places of sea-birds on the Culf 

 Coast of the United States. About 35,000 

 nests of Royal Terns were discovered, per- 

 haps nineteen of every twenty containing 

 only one egg, the others two. In a few 

 hundred nests the young had already 

 hatched or were hatching. Here also were 

 groups of Caspian Terns' nests and a score 

 or more of Forster's Terns' eggs were seen. 

 There were Cabot's Terns to the extent of 

 about 9,000 pairs, judging from a count of 

 the nests. There were forty-eight occupied 

 nests of the Brown Pelican built of sticks 

 and weeds and all situated on the ground, 

 as the island was not adorned by a single 

 tree or living bush. Eight nests of the 

 Reddish Egret, eleven of the Louisiana 

 Heron, and twenty of the Ward's Heron 

 were found. One of the most abundant 

 species was the Laughing Gull, and the 



nests were hidden in the grass everywhere 

 over the entire island. Their numbers 

 were estimated to be anywhere from 

 10,000 to 40,000. 



A mile away lies Little Bird Island, 

 where seventy-three nests of the Caspian 

 Tern were counted, the eggs being deposited 

 on small layers of marsh grass, or, as was 

 more frequently the case, in slight hollows 

 in the bare sand. At least seventy-five 

 pairs of Ward's Herons also had eggs or 

 young. The most interesting discovery 

 was that of a small colony of White Peli- 

 cans. Eight were seen leaving the Island 

 as we approached and forty-two others 

 arose from the ground as we landed. In- 

 vestigation showed eighteen young, three 

 nests with eggs and ten eggs scattered 

 about on the ground. The point of chief 

 interest in connection with the breeding 

 of these birds on Little Bird Island is that 

 heretofore we have not known them to 

 nest in the United States at any point east 

 of Chase Lake, North Dakota, or south 

 of the Salton Sea in California. A warden, 

 of course, was employed to represent the 

 Association in guarding these two great 

 communities of bird-life. 



At Brownsville, Texas, I had the good 

 fortune to meet R. D. Camp, a member 

 of the Association and a most intelligent 

 and enthusiastic field naturalist. On 

 June 3, 1920, in company with him and 

 another member, George C. Shupee, of 

 San Antonio, I journeyed 22 miles by nar- 

 row-gauge railroad to Point Isabel. Here 

 Mr. Camp secured the services of a Mexi- 

 can with a shallow draft sailing vessel, 

 and, laying in three days' provisions, I 

 again set sail on the waters of Laguna de 

 la Madre, but this time heading north- 

 ward. Our destination was Green Island, 

 32 miles up the Laguna. Mr. Camp had 

 visited this place during the previous au- 

 tumn and discovered signs of Herons hav- 

 ing bred there. Our hopes were fully 

 realized when, late the first day, we dropped 

 anchor near the island. The bushes, cover- 

 ing many acres, were seen to be thickly 

 populated with Herons, and flocks of birds 

 continued to arrive from every direction 

 until darkness fell. Daylight revealed the 



