THE OOLOGIST 



was ten years ago. Forty years ago 

 there were islands here known as 

 Pink Curlew rookeries, (Roseate 

 Spoonbill) then it was common to see 

 hundreds of these beautiful birds in 

 one colony, now it is rare to see half 

 a dozen. If they decrease in the next 

 five years as rapidly as they have in 

 the last five, they will be classed with 

 the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, Carolina 

 Paroquet, etc. 



The Florida Wild Turkey is nothing 

 like as plentiful as it was ten years 

 ago, neither is the Swallow-tailed Kite 

 or Everglade Kite; the latter is di- 

 minishing rapidly as the draining of 

 the Everglade progresses. As late as 

 five years ago I saw possibly ten 

 thousand or more white Ibis in one 

 colony, now five hundred of these 

 birds is considered a large colony. 

 Ten years ago it was common to see 

 hundreds of Vultures around a pile of 

 skinned alligators, now twenty is a 

 large number. 



The migratory birds do not pass 

 here in nothing like the number they 

 did ten years ago. At this rate of de- 

 crease what will be the status of our 

 feathered friends at the end of the 

 next forty years? Many of them will 

 be classed with the Great Auk and 

 Passenger Pigeon. If any reader 

 knows of the Carolina Paroquet breed- 

 ing in any place, I would like to hear 

 from him. 



The decrease in the birds is not 

 caused by taking their eggs, as all the 

 birds except the Bald Eagle that nest 

 here, will lay the second clutch of eggs 

 if the first is taken and many of the 

 birds will continue to lay clutches un- 

 til August or raise a brood. 



J. B. Ellis. 

 Chokoloskee, Florida. 



Height at Which Birds Fly 



Uudoubtedly there is much vari- 

 ation in the height above the earth at 



which birds make their migratory 

 flights. That the flight is often low 

 anyone can demonstrate to his own 

 satisfaction by listening to the bird- 

 calls, which can be heard overhead 

 upon favorable nights during the mi- 

 grating season. Often these appear 

 to be so near, it would seem that the 

 birds must be little higher than the 

 tree-tops. Indeed, the writer once saw 

 two large white gulls flying low 

 enough to be recognized by the light 

 of an electric street lamp. This was 

 at an inland point, fully one hundred 

 miles away from a body of water of 

 any size. Hunters are familiar with 

 the height at which ducks and geese 

 are often seen flying but it remains 

 for John Burroughs to give testimony 

 to the extreme height at which he 

 once observed a flock of swans. Swans 

 are large birds, but they were flying 

 so high overhead as to have been al- 

 most invisible to Mr. Burroughs' un- 

 aided eye. He estimates that they 

 must have been at a height of at least 

 three miles. — The Classmate. — ^W. A. 

 Strong, San Jose, Cal. 



Paul G. Howes 



The well-known naturalist of Stam- 

 ford, Conn., has just returned from 

 an extended visit in Soth America, 

 most of the time being spent at the 

 Observation Station of the New York 

 Zoological Society maintained by it in 

 British Guinea. During the time spent 

 there,not the least interesting of the 

 discoveries made was the breeding 

 place of the Hoatzin, which is the 

 only surviving link connecting the dim 

 and distant past with the present so 

 far as the birds and reptiles are con- 

 cerned; it being the only ave remain- 

 ing on earth which still has fingers 

 on the wings which it uses in climb- 

 ing. 



A very complete review of the life 

 history of this rare and curious bird 



