'ELICAN ISLAND, CHARLOTTE HA RBOR, FLORIDA 

 The birds here all nest in trees 



Florida Bird Notes 



By T. GILBERT PEARSON 



With photographs by the author 



WHILE in Florida last year, in the interests of the National Associa- 

 tion of Audubon Societies, the writer spent some time studying 

 ornithological conditions of the lower Gulf Coast region lying 

 between Tampa and Key West. The objects of the cruise were, in part, to 

 visit the bird reservations in Tampa Bay; to explore, in quest of bird colo- 

 nies, a territory heretofore but slightly known; to investigate reported traffic 

 in Egret plumes; and, finally, to select a home in Key West for Mrs. Guy 

 Bradley, wife of the murdered game-warden. The expedition was made, 

 mainly in a two-masted sailing vessel, from which frequent expeditions were 

 made among the Keys and on the neighboring mainland. 



Indian Key Reservation, near St. Petersburg, was visited on April ii, 

 1906. This island is about ninety acres in extent and is covered thickly 

 with mangrove trees, many of which attain a height of thirty feet. At this 

 time comparatively few birds were present. Seven Great White Herons 

 were seen standing on the mangroves, but two nests examined revealed no 

 eggs. Near by, one hundred or more Louisiana and Little Blue Herons 

 were likewise engaged in nest-building, but no eggs were seen. A flock of 

 Cormorants, numbering about sixty, left the trees at our approach and 

 settled on the water, as did also perhaps two dozen Brown Pelicans, but 

 these, too, were apparently not interested in domestic affairs. A Barn Owl, 



(6) 



