410 
ALECTORIDES. 
Dr. Bryant ascertained positively that this species breeds in Florida. His first 
impression was that it began to breed about the 1st of March, but he afterward 
ascertained that some breed much earlier than this. On the 11th of March a young 
bird was brought to him which was already two feet in height, and was covered with 
down of a ferruginous color above and cinereous below. The eyes were large and 
projecting, and the bird looked like a miniature ostrich. The young remain with 
their parents till they are fully grown, and are fed for a long time by regurgitation. 
They do not fly until they are as large as their parents, but run with great speed, and 
hide like young partridges. A nest found by him on the 11th of March contained 
two eggs in which incubation had just commenced ; another found on the 15th con- 
tained two fresh eggs, and a third on the same day had two nearly hatched. It is a 
very singular feature in the history of this bird that it should be thus found breeding 
in Cuba, through all the lower parts of the peninsula of Florida, and thence only seen 
in its migrations between there and the Northwestern States. 
The observations of Mr. Moore have led him to the conclusion that the migrating 
individuals of this species do not visit Florida during their southern sojourn, as there 
is no increase in the numbers which are seen there during the winter, and no move- 
ments take place among them to favor this idea. The Florida birds are never seen 
to soar high in the air in flocks at any time of the year, as the migrating individuals 
may frequently be seen to do in their southern winter homes in Louisiana, Texas, and 
other States. One, or at most a pair, has been seen moving in this manner, not 
intent on travel, but as if to take an airing. When flushed it runs three or four steps, 
and then rises and soars away, but without mounting to the height of the pines. Its 
notes are uttered on the ground in sight of apprehended danger. It can alight on 
trees, but does so very rarely. 
Mr. Moore states, also, that nests of this species are generally placed in the shallow 
ponds with which Florida abounds, among aquatic plants, of which they are formed. 
In one instance a large mass of these plants was heaped up, constituting a nest, 
which, when found, March 2, was six or eight inches above the water in its highest 
parts. It was about a hundred yards from dry ground, and in the midst of mud and 
water. It was within two hundred yards of a travelled road, and in full view. The 
sitting bird had lowered her head, and so remained until Mr. Moore was within sixty 
yards, when she flew off, and dropped down among some plants not far distant. The 
mate soon appeared, and continued to fly around, but did not come near. The two 
eggs in the nest lay with their longitudinal diameter in a line parallel with the spinal 
cord of the bird as she sat on them, and were six inches apart. The eggs measured, 
one 3.75 by 2.33, the other 3.87 by 2.37 inches. Other nests were placed on the 
dryest ground, among the saw-palmettos, and formed of pliable materials, herbs, 
grasses, and the like, but never with stiff material or sticks. In one instance the 
nest was composed of grasses plucked up by the roots, with much sand attached. 
The entire nest, lining and all, was thus made up. 
The young birds run as soon as they are hatched, and may be seen, when not larger 
than a week-old Turkey, moving about with their parents, with whom they remain till 
they are nearly a year old. Sometimes they are run down and taken before they are 
able to fly, the parents remaining at a distance, expressing their anxiety by the utter- 
ance of loud and peculiar notes, and by moving about, but at such times never attacking 
the enemy. 
In the stomachs of those Mr. Moore dissected he was never able to discover any 
animal food ; but in those of two that were killed feeding together in three inches of 
water, he found masses composed of the roots of a small species of Sagittaria. Another 
