1S87-] Scott on the Bird Rookeries. 0/ Southern Florida. 14-^ 



Ardea egretta, 40 cents (the only part of the bird used being 

 the long feathers of the back) ; Ardea candidissima, 55 cents 

 (in addition to the back plumes, those of the throat or breast and 

 head are utilized) ; Ardea rufa, 40 cents (simply the back 

 plumes) ; Ardea rujicollis tricolor, 10 to 15 cents (only the 

 plumes of the back are utilized) ; Ardea wardi (plumes of breast 

 and back), 75 cents to one dollar ; Ajaja ajaja (Jlat skin) $2.00 

 to $5.00. A Jlat skin is the bird skin split underneath from the 

 bill to the vent and skinned so that the whole is perfectly flat 

 when dry. Generally the legs are cut oft", and sometimes the 

 wings, and even the head. 



These two hunters both told me of the man of whom I had heard 

 at Hickory Bluff, and gave me much interesting information re- 

 garding the traffic in plumes. Wilkerson told me of the birds 

 which once inhabited the rookeries of this river in great abun- 

 dance. He had made, he said, many a dollar from plumes ob- 

 tained here, and spoke of the little rookery I have described 

 above as too small to be hardly worthy of the name. He was on 

 his way to some lakes far up the river, in the interior, where he 

 hoped to find large rookeries of the Little White Egret, which 

 is regarded as the best paying species. His method of obtaining 

 birds was with a 22-calibre Winchester rifle. With this he could 

 go into a rookery and secrete himself, and by using the lightest 

 kind of cartridge get many more birds than with a shot-gun, as 

 the report is hardly greater than the snapping of a branch, and is 

 scarcely noticed by the birds. In this way he said he had been 

 able in a large rookery down south to get over four hundred 

 'plume birds' in less than four days. 



On asking him about Reddish Egrets, I found he was full of 

 information. He told me of a rookery he had recently visited at 

 the entrance of Matlacha Pass, where there were many of these 

 birds, and some in the white phase. He also said he had hunted 

 the entire coast, and that below Marko Pass, the colored phase 

 of the Reddish Egret became uncommon, while the white phase 

 began to be more numerous, and that the form found in the rook- 

 eries of the Thousand Islands was the white phase, which is 

 there quite plenty ; he had never seen a colored bird there or 

 south of there. I have this same information from a number of 

 independent sources and consider it reliable. A word further as 

 to the range to the northward on the Gulf Coast of the Reddish 



