144 FLORIDA BIRD-LIFE 



Observations made early the following morning, from 

 a tree-top near our camp, showed that apparently all the 

 Spoonbills and many of the Egrets had returned to the 

 rookery after our departure the preceding evening; but 

 when we attempted to call upon them they quickly left with- 

 out waiting to inquire the nature of our visit. There being 

 no young birds to attract them, it was evident that we could 

 not hope to observe these birds until they returned in the 

 afternoon. I therefore entered my blind at two o'clock 

 remaining until nightfall. While I made no especially note- 

 worthy observations or photographs, the experience 

 brought me very close to the spirit of rookery life and pos- 

 sessed in a high degree that intense interest aroused by 

 one's unsuspected presence among a great gathering of 

 birds. During the early part of the afternoon the Louis- 

 iana Herons — known locally as " Loosies " claimed my at- 

 tention. Their nests were everywhere ; in the trees and 

 bushes from three or four feet, to fifteen or twenty feet 

 above the ground. Some were near the drier central part of 

 the island, but by far the greater number were in the bor- 

 dering mangroves. Most of them contained the full set of 

 three fresh eggs, but the birds were still animated by the ex- 

 citement of mating and in contest or display created a con- 

 fusing variety and volume of sounds. When perched on the 

 mangroves they were silent and alert, but encountering a 

 mate or rival, in the branches below, both uttered a loud, 

 sing-song, qua-haw, qua-haw, qua-haw, qua-haw, or quit-it- 

 now, quit-it-now, quit-it-now, as with neck feathers bristling 

 until this part seemed three times its usual diameter, and 

 crest raised, they pointed their bills upward and half-opened 

 their wings. The action revealed the function of the elon- 

 gated neck-feathers of this species, which were so ruffled 

 that the bird seemed to be wearing a feather boa. While not 

 shy, the birds were nervous in the extreme and the snap- 

 ping of a twig was followed by silence and, with a rush of 

 wings, the sudden flight of virtually every bird that heard 



