24 BULLETIN 326, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



insects, lizards, and crustaceans form the bulk of the animal food, while the 

 vegetable matter is accidental rubbish secured with other food. 



Animal food. — Mole crickets {Scapteriscus didactylus) make 7.23 per cent 

 of the total and were found in six stomachs. In one bird taken at Yabucoa 

 I counted 35 jaws, and in each of two others were found two entire adults. 

 Other insects formed 31.51 per cent, so that nearly two-fifths of the food of 

 this bird is taken from the great class Insecta, a surprising ainount for a bird 

 of such aquatic habit. Nymphs of grasshoppers and locusts were found in 

 five stomachs and caterpillars in four. Water bugs and water striders figure 

 in three instances and dragon-fly larvae of the suborder Anisoptera twice. Water 

 scavenger beetles occur five times and several were identified (Hydrophilus sp., 

 Stethoxus ater, Tropistemus nimbatus, and Berosus sp.). May beetles (Lach- 

 nosterna sp. ) had been eaten by two birds and figure as 1 per cent of the food, 

 while another scarabseid beetle was found in one instance. Only one insect 

 belonging to the order Hymenoptera was found. Miscellaneous animal matter, 

 composed of two frogs (Leptodactylus albilabris), one spider {Tetragnatha 

 antillana), and some indeterminate material, forms 0.59 per cent. 



Crustaceans were present in 8 of the 15 stomachs examined and form 27.4 

 per cent of the contents. Crabs of four species (Uca pugnax rapax, Aratus 

 pisonii, Sesarma (Holometopus) roberti, and Goniopsis cruentata) were iden- 

 tified in five individuals. Two species of shrimps (Macrobrachium acanthurus, 

 and M. olfersii) were noted four times. Lizards form 29.44 per cent, and are 

 probably the food sought when the birds visit the inland pastures. Twenty- 

 one small lizards (Anolis sp.) were found in one stomach, together with ground- 

 up remains of several more. Another contained three lizards of larger size 

 (Anolis pulchellus), and four the ameiva (Ameiva exul). A small goby was 

 found in one stomach. 



Vegetable food. — The vegetable food, 2.78 per cent, may be considered entirely 

 as rubbish, though it included seeds of purslane (Portulaca oleracea) and one 

 other species. The great portion, however, was merely taken in with other food 

 and in no case forms an appreciable bulk of the stomach contents. 



The practice in many localities of treating these herons as game birds is to 

 be deplored, as they are highly beneficial. At Yabucoa it was common for 

 parties to hunt " garzas," and, although the little green heron suffered too, the 

 blue heron, being larger, was more prized for the table. Their breeding grounds 

 everywhere are being encroached upon by the charcoal burners, who are cutting 

 the mangroves, and unless measures favorable to these herons are adopted a 

 bird of considerable economic importance will be lost to the island. Men were 

 seen busily engaged in cutting trees near the largest colony, and in a short time 

 would have reached the rookery itself. By making reserves of some of the 

 places occupied by the herons and by forbidding their hunting at all times 

 their numbers should materially increase. Their flesh is inferior at best, and 

 as for " sport," such a term can hardly be used in connection with the pursuit 

 of large straight-flying birds like these, even though much hunting has made 

 them rather wary. 



The harm done by the birds in the destruction of lizards is greatly out- 

 weighed by good done in other directions, and lizards, except in case of the 

 ameiva, do not seem to be decreasing in numbers. The value of this heron to 

 the agriculturist lies in its destruction of the mole cricket and other injurious 

 insects. 



LOUISIANA HERON. Hydranassa tricolor ruficollis (Gosse). 

 Garza, Garza db Cuello Rojo. 



Gundlach (1878, p. 356) found the Louisiana heron only on the southwest 

 coast at Boqueron, where it was common. In the present work the species was 



