18S7.J Scott on the Bird Rookeries of Southern Florida. I ^Q 



River, thence following the bay const down to the mouth of Sara- 

 sota Bay, and that night at six anchored at the town of Sarasota. 

 To-day we had sailed over some sixtv miles, in a region once 

 famous for its teeming bird life, but now the birds were only con- 

 spicuous by their scarcity. During the entire day 1 only noticed 

 a few scattering Herons, one or two Man-o'-War Birds, four or 

 five Brown Pelicans, and a few Gulls. 



Monday, May 3. Left Sarasota at 6.25 a.m. Day clear ; wind 

 in morning east to northeast, moderate. We sailed out through 

 Big Sarasota Pass and were soon in the Gulf, running down the 

 coast with a fair wind. About five miles off shore were many 

 Brown Pelicans fishing among great schools of mullet, and a few 

 Man-o'-War Birds sailing about in graceful evolutions. Here. 

 too, were some Laughing Gulls, and now and then a few Royal 

 or Forster's Terns, in small flocks of may be a dozen individuals. 

 This was about a fair sample of the bird life all the forty miles 

 down to Boca Grande, the principal entrance to Charlotte Har- 

 bor. 



Here we entered, and going, after getting fairly inside, about 

 two miles to the northward along the shore of Gasparilla Island, 

 at 5.25 p.m. we anchored for the night. We were not more than 

 a hundred yards from the shore of the island and almost at once 

 I went ashore in quest of birds. 



The island is a long, low strip of sand, wooded with a heavy 

 growth of cabbage palms and some kinds of low palmetto. 

 Beside these were two kinds of mangrove growing profusely, as 

 well as a perfect tangle of low undergrowth of shrubs and vines. 

 All of the commoner small species that one would expect were 

 represented, and I saw a single pair of Reddish Egrets, two 

 White Ibises, and three Louisiana Herons. The bird that par- 

 ticularly attracted my attention was a single male Bobolink, in 

 ftdl spring plumage. This seemed to me unusual, but I have 

 seen large numbers of the same species in early fall, about Tar- 

 pon Springs. They appeared on the 26th of August, ]SS6, at 

 the point indicated. The first flock was small, not over twenty 

 birds, but in a week they were abundant and in very large flocks. 

 About the middle of October they began to disappear, and bv 

 November first all had left the region about Tarpon Springs. 



Tuesday, May 4. Charlotte Harbor ! How many wonderful 

 tales of the great heronries, with the myriads of birds every- 



