104 
OKNITllOU KJIST 
[Vol. 7-No. 13. 
witli a few trees scattered along its bor¬ 
ders, long since deiid, covered with the 
white excrement of the birds. On this 
island large numbers of Bro^\^l Pelicans 
were breeding, and tlie offensive odor ari¬ 
sing from the island invades the air for a 
quarter of a mile from its shores, and at 
first is quite sickening. Each tree contained 
from one to five nests, but the majority 
were jilaced on the ground and close to¬ 
gether, composed first of a layer of coarse 
sticks from a fourth to an inch in diame¬ 
ter, while the ui3i)er part was made of finer 
twigs, Imed inside with coarse grasses ; in 
one nest was found a piece of wire cable 
twenty-six inches long. We counted over 
three lumdred nests, all of which contained 
from two to five eggs, three being the more 
common number, in color a dii’ty white. 
Tlie birds were ven’ tame, constantly 
alighting in the trees within a few feet of 
us, and thousands were shamming in the 
water about the island; many were young 
birds of the previous nesting with the 
white neck and breast. While here we shot 
a magnificent sjiecimen of the Man-of-War 
Bird, measuring seven feet four inches 
from tij) to tip of wings. 
On the 4th of April we came to anchor 
in Banana Creek, opposite a large herony 
situated in a low mangi-ove swamp. Early 
the next morning we entered the nesting, 
l)ut the noise made in forcing our way 
through the dense foliage bordering the 
swamp, frightened the birds from the nest 
and they circled around in the air above 
in hundreds. Every mangrove tree con¬ 
tained several nests, and it was only by 
wading in the water and mud hip deep, 
that we were enabled to secure the eggs. 
IVrany species were breeding here in perfect 
luirmony, each forming a little colony by 
itself, except the Great Blue Heron, wliose 
nests were scattered jiromiscuously all over 
the swamp. The following sjiecies were 
found breeding: Louisiana. Little Green, 
liitfle Blue, ^\'hite, Great Blue, and Snowy 
Herons. One jiair of Least ftitterns were 
seen but no nests founcL The Louisiana i 
Heron was by far tlie most numerous. 
Fifty six species of birds were taken diu-- 1 1 
ing our stay of four weeks on tlie upper | 
St. Johns’ and Indian rivere and more than I ■ 
double tliat number observed. 
The coming winter we hope to give the 
readers of the ^ Ornithologist” some notes 
on the birds of Lake Okeechobee and the 
Everglades.— Cfuiit. W.Gmih, Grand Rap¬ 
ids, Michii/aii. 
Publications—Recent and Otherwise. 
OiTR Winter Birds is tlie title of an in¬ 
teresting article wliich appeared in the 
Worcester Daily Spy of January 28. It is 
written to jilease the general reader but the 
wTiter does not sacrifice fact for fancy. It 
appeal’s over the initials of H. D. Mfinot.! 
New England Bird Life. —A rambling 
and not ver\' intelligent review of this 
work apjieared in the New A’ork 7’itnes of 
Januarv 3. Tlie writer gives many sug 
gestions, the result of which would be a 
jiojiular work on omitholog;s’, which our 
modem scientists don't seem to compre¬ 
hend. A more thorough and careful re¬ 
view of this work will be found in the Jhilt. 
JVidl. Oni. ('ltd).. No. 4, Vol. vi., page 236, 
liy William Brewster. 
Birds of Prey of Nova Scotia.— Dr. J. 
Bernard Gilpin, the well known oniitholo 
gist of Halifax, has recently published in 
the Proceedings Nova Scotia Institute of 
Natural Science, a veiy- interesting and 
valualile paper on the “ Birds of Prey of 
Nova Scotia,” having personally identified, 
with one or two exceptions, ever}- species 
mentioned in the list, which we have rea¬ 
son to believe is comjilete to the present 
time. Nine of the family Striyidtr are no¬ 
ted and fourteen of the Falronidie. These 
include, with one or two exceptions, all of 
the birds of these orders common to North 
Eastern .\merica. 
The N. Y. Obst’rrer conies to ns as frasli 
as though it had not jiassed through the 
feariul ordeal of fin*. 
