Various Florida Birds. 
2 7 
Ardea rufescens Gmel. This is also a species which still suffers from 
plume-hunting, and during our entire trip we saw but two birds, both 
near Tavanier Bank, Bay of Florida, on March 23 and 24. 
Ajaja ajaja (Linn.). A large flock of over 200 birds were observed about 
White Water Lake, Cape Sable, on March 28, where they were breeding, 
we were told, with Guara alba. They kept practically aloof from the 
various species of Heronida? and Ibididse which were very abundant, 
though once we saw one A. ajaja perched in some iron wood trees with 
a small flock of G. alba. On March 13 a single bird Avas flushed from 
the banks of the Kissimmee River above Lanier’s Landing, but they are 
now only very rarely seen in that region. We are told by Mr. Torrey that 
one was seen at Miami (Cocoanut Grove) in January or February, 1902. 
Phcenicopterus ruber Linn. On March 26 we observed a flock of from 
500 to 1000 birds in a little bay to the east of Cape Sable. They were 
feeding in four platoons on a certain mudbank where we are told a bivalve 
of which they are particularly fond occurs. We quote from our journal 
in regard to our finding them. “As we rounded a point on the mudbank 
across the bight, a line of vermilion 300 yards long stretched along the 
white water, and against the intense green of the shore beyond, a sight 
never to be forgotten ! A flock of nearly a thousand Flamingoes were 
feeding in four platoons of close rank resembling a regiment of British 
soldiers. A moment later the right platoon rose into the air like a flame 
of fire, wheeled, and again alighted. Even our two rough guides who 
had seen the sight many times, were transfixed with admiration .... Slowly 
we approached the beautiful birds and watched them eagerly, as they fed 
with their heads between their feet, scooping up the mud. Now and then 
they would stand up to their full height of four and one half feet, and 
walk forward for a short distance like a regiment. Occasionally they 
would discuss us in goose-like notes. In fact, both their voice and flight 
suggest the latter bird. 
It is useless to describe the unrivaled beauty of the birds, or the interest 
of the sight we beheld. Rising from the flats as one bird, they flew down 
the bight and alighted again at its entrance, and a moment later flew from 
view. This locality we have good reason to suppose is the only one 
where they occur nowadays in Florida and we are told that they are to be 
found here at all times of the year, though their breeding grounds have 
never to our knowledge been found in this state. It is not unlikely that 
somewhere among the many unexplored keys, on some interior mudflat, 
this colony breeds, for a number of years ago a French naturalist secured 
a young bird here whose wings and strength could not have carried it from 
the Bahamas. Then too, Florida specimens seem to differ slightly from 
Bahama specimens, though not sufficiently to need separation, yet enough 
to suggest their probably different breeding places.” 
Very few Flamingoes are now shot in Florida, and besides one specimen 
shot of late years by a native, several taken by a tourist and one strag¬ 
gler shot in Miami not over four years ago, we know of no others taken 
prior to our visit. 
