10 



THE OOLOGIST 



ROBERT D. HOYT 



The readers of The Oologist will 

 hear with regret of the death of Rob- 

 ert D. Hoyt at his home "Twin Oaks." 

 near Clearwater, Florida. 



Last February he had a stroke of 

 paralysis from which he rallied and 

 was better, but a recurrence of tne 

 disease November 23d last. Mr. Hoyt 

 was an ardent lover of nature, and 

 his long residence in the state and 

 his familiarity with its birds, animals 

 and plants, made him an authority 

 on Florida fauna. His frequent trips 

 to the south end of the state, as well 

 as to the Everglades, brought to his 

 fine museum many rare birds and their 

 eggs, notably amongst others are fine 

 sets of the Kites Everglade and Swal- 

 lowtail. 



It was the writer's pleasure to visit 

 Mr. Hoyt in the month of May 1910. 

 I well recollect my impression on 

 seeing his home for the first time. 

 Seven stately Live Oaks, covered 

 with great masses of Spanish moss, 

 hanging in festoons of ten to fifteen 

 feet in length and almost touching the 

 ground, formed the setting in which 

 his home was built while the lawn 

 was planted with many rare exotics. 

 I know his fondness for plant life 

 had an equal place with that for the 

 birds. 



Rare palms, large clumps of Bam- 

 boo, Cactus and other semi-tropical 

 forms ornamented the grounds, while 

 nearby a beautiful Citrus grove con- 

 taining many varieties of oranges and 

 grapefruit trees all in the highest 

 state of care and cultivation, and 

 most attractive surroundings. 



Shortly after my arrival Mr. Hoyt 

 took me into the pine woods nearby, 

 saying a pair of Chuck-wills-widows 

 had nested in that locality. After a 

 short search I was fortunate enough 

 to find the female sitting on two 

 handsome eggs, under a tree with low 



hanging branches. She was very 

 loth to leave her nest and I got two 

 snap shots with the camera, and she 

 allowed us to almost touch her. Near- 

 by we found a colony of Herons nest- 

 ing, having both young and eggs. I 

 only recollect two species, the Louisi- 

 ana and Little Blue, but in another 

 swamp nearby the Snowy Heron had 

 recently nested in considerable num- 

 bers. 



Near the Hoyt home an arm of 

 Tampa Bay runs back quite a dis- 

 tance. It is thickly dotted with little 

 islands covered with mangrove bushes. 

 These are favorite nesting places for 

 the Gray Kingbird, and Mr. Hoyt 

 showed me a number of their nests, 

 some having eggs. They were about 

 8 or 10 feet from the ground, or 

 rather over the water where they 

 seem to prefer to build. 



As we were leaving we saw a 

 flock of six Rosette Spoonbills sitting 

 on a dead tree. A beautiful sight. 

 They were young birds, probably 

 hatched far south. 



Mr. Hoyt was one of the few orni- 

 thologists that had found the nest and 

 eggs of the Ivory billed Woodpecker, 

 now one of the rarest birds on our 

 list. 



Mr. Hoyt is survived by a widow, 

 two daughters and two sons, the lat- 

 ter two being in the U.. S. Service in 

 the Aviation branch. 



Thomas H. Jackson. 



It is with genuine sorrow that we 

 read the above from friend Jackson. 

 For many years we had the pleasure 

 and profit of knowing R. D. Hoyt by 

 correspondence. And no one could 

 know him in any way without profit- 

 ing thereby. His letters were the 

 givings of a true naturalist. Clear 

 concise, accurate, and thoughtful; a 

 pleasure to peruse as they teamed 

 with real information, fresh from the 



