BIRDS OF PORTO RICO. 25 



seen in the lagoon region between Salinas and Guayama, where on May 3 

 several were wading in shallow bays and pools. There are no other definite 

 localities recorded for it on the island. The single bird examined had eaten 

 16 small fish from 1 to 2 inches long, among which was 1 goby, the others being 

 killifishes. These are all food fishes, but not of sufficient value to condemn the 

 bird, as it is too rare here to do any appreciable damage. 



SNOWY EGRET, SXOWY HERON. Egretta candidissima candidissima (Gmelin). 

 Garza, Garza Blanca. 



The snowy egret is resident in Porto Rico, being distributed throughout the 

 lagoons of the coastal region and about the mouths of the rivers, usually rang- 

 ing 3 miles or more inland. After the breeding season the birds appear to 

 wander, as on August 8 one was seen flying up the Rio Vivi at Utuado. While 

 still fairly common, especially in the large, more inaccessible swampy regions, 

 the egret has suffered much at the hands of plume hunters, and I was told 

 that as late as 1910 plumes had been offered for sale in Caguas. 



March 16 about a dozen were seen on Pifiero Island, off Fajardo, where they 

 are said to breed. At Salinas the birds were said to be nesting on low mangrove- 

 covered islands lying offshore, and parties of three and four were seen flying 

 back and forth between these islands and the mainland, frequently 200 feet in 

 the air. 



In the lagoons snowy herons joined other larger species at low tide, wading 

 in shallows over the reefs in the bays, or at the borders of the lagoons, in 

 water nearly up to their bodies. Where they are much hunted these birds 

 are very wary and, seeming to appreciate that their white color renders them 

 conspicuous, are the first among the herons to take alarm. When they leave 

 they usually frighten the others. They may readily be distinguished from white 

 immature specimens of Florida c. ccerulescens, as they have the tarsus black 

 and the soles of the feet yellow, while in the little blue heron the tarsus is 

 greenish. Frequently the snowy egret feeds in lowland cane fields, especially 

 when these are wet or partly flooded. Often in flocks of three or four they feed 

 in the dry upland pastures. 



Food. — Two stomachs w r ere available for examination, both of birds which 

 had been feeding in mangrove swamps. The main content of these is animal 

 matter, vegetable remains occurring only as rubbish secured with other food 

 and amounting to but 1 per cent. One bird taken near Rio Piedras had eaten 

 two dragon-fly nymphs, a small crab, a lizard, and a small frog. The stomach 

 of the other, secured near Mameyes, was nearly filled with bones of small 

 gobies, the remainder of the animal food consisting of fragments of flies of the 

 family Dolichopodidae and bits of a grasshopper. In their excursions to drier 

 fields the birds must secure other insects. They feed to a large extent upon 

 fish, but the fishes taken are of no great importance and the birds are not 

 abundant enough to become noxious. They have been found worthy of protec- 

 tion in the United States, and the same course should be followed in Porto 

 Rico in hope that they will increase in numbers, when they may assist in hold- 

 ing in check the destructive mole cricket. 



EGRET. Herodias egretta (Gmelin). 

 Garzon Blanco, Garza Real. 



A few of the large egrets are still found in the lagoons of the coastal region 

 of Porto Rico, but they are nowhere common. On February 14, while I was 

 crossing Comezon Cove near Mameyes, a fine egret flew out from a nest in an 

 isolated clump of mangroves. The nest was merely a loose platform of sticks 

 about 20 feet from the water and contained one young bird and two addled 



