214 Scott on the Bird Rookeries of Southern Florida. 



[July 



This pass is between the mainland and Pine Island, the largest 

 of the islands in Charlotte Harbor. On the way over my atten- 

 tion was attracted by large flocks of Man-o'-war Birds, which, 

 with an ease and grace that surprised me, were Ashing in the 

 rouo-h water during a very strong wind. There were hundreds 

 of them in all phases of plumage. 



We reached our destination — the island which Mr. Wilkerson 

 had told me was the breeding place of Reddish Egrets — at about 

 four o'clock, and at once came to anchor. A few Herons were 

 to be seen from time to time flying to the island, and presently I 

 took the small boat and went ashore to reconnoitre. This had 

 evidently been only a short time before a large rookery. The 

 trees were full of nests, some of which still contained eggs, and 

 hundreds of broken eggs strewed the ground everywhere. Fish 

 Crows and both kinds of Buzzards were present in great numbers 

 and were rapidly destroying the remaining eggs. I found a huge 

 pile of dead, half decayed birds, lying on the ground which had 

 apparently been killed for a day or two. All of them had the 

 'plumes' taken with a patch of the skin from the back, and some 

 had the wings cut off; otherwise they were uninjured. I counted 

 over two hundred birds treated in this way. The most common 

 species was the Reddish Egret, though there were about as many 

 Louisiana Herons ; the other species were the Snowy Heron, 

 Great White Egret, and the Little Blue Heron in both phases of 

 plumage. There were also a few Pelicans, White Ibises, and 

 one or two Great Blue Herons. I remained there till almost 

 dark, but did not fire at any of the few frightened Herons (about 

 fifty in all), which came to roost on the island. Among these I 

 noticed a few Reddish Egrets and two of the so-called Peale's 

 Egrets, but most of the birds were the commoner species of 

 Heron. This was the rookery that Mr. Wilkerson had spoken 

 of; within the last few days it had been almost destroyed, hun- 

 dreds of old birds having been killed and thousands of egg s 

 broken. I do not know of a more horrible and brutal exhibition 

 of wanton destruction than that which I witnessed here. I shall 

 have to refer to this point later, as I visited it again in about a 

 week, and there learned from a man I met further details of the 

 slaughter, the results of which I had witnessed. 



Sunday, May 9. This morning Capt. Baker went with me in 

 the small boat to explore in detail the neighboring islands. We 



