CUTHBERT ROOKERY 



Cuthbert Rookery is probably the last rookery in Flori- 

 da at all comparable with those great gatherings of nesting 

 birds formerly common thronghont the state. Rookeries 

 of Ibises, or Cormorants, of Little Bine and Lonisiana 

 Herons and other nonplume-bearing birds may still be 

 fonnd by those who know where to look for them. Bnt at 

 Cnthl)ert alone, so far as I am aware, will one find all the 

 birds mentioned, together with Spoonbills, x\merican and 

 Snowy Egrets. This rookery is sitnated in what the maps 

 term the *' Great Mangrove Swamp" which borders the 

 Everglades at the sonthern extremity of Florida, and is 

 about seven miles from the coast, at a point known as Snake 

 Bight, some twelve miles east of the settlement of Flamin- 

 go. The proposed extension of the Florida East Coast 

 railroad to Cape Sable wonld have passed within a mile or 

 two of it. 



Cnthbert Rookery was discovered some twenty years 

 da. It has been "shot ont" repeatedly, but its isolation and 

 comparative inaccessibility, together with the absence of 

 fresh water, make it worthy the plnmer 's attention only 

 when the progeny of the birds which have escaped the last 

 raid, have become sufficiently numerous. Cuthbert 's isola- 

 tion also makes it a refuge for birds which have been 

 "broke up" in less remote places, and it is not improbable 

 that the last Snowy Egret and Roseate Spoonbill of Florida 

 will be shot at this point. 



Cuthbert Rookery was discovered some twenty years 

 ago by the man for whom it was named. He is reported to 

 have killed $1,800 worth of plume birds on his first visit. 

 The first ornithologists to reach Cuthbert Rookery were A. 

 C. Bent and H. K. Job, who visited it under the guidance of 



