18S7.] Scott on the Bird Rookeries of Southern Florida. 21*1 



and who is a professional 'bird-plumer.' He had returned to 

 this point this afternoon, having been here a few weeks earlier, 

 when he had found the birds very numerous. He was hunting 

 plumes, particularly of the Snowy Heron, American Egret, and 

 Reddish Egret, as they brought the highest prices, but he killed 

 to sell to the 'taxidermists,' as he called them, "almost anything 

 that wore feathers." He said he wished there was some law to 

 protect the birds, at least during the breeding time, which would 

 not be violated. He added, however, that as everybody else 

 was 'pluming', he had made up his mind that he might as well 

 have his share. 



He was killing birds and taking plumes now for Mr. J. H. 

 Batty, of New York City, who employed many men along the 

 entire Gulf Coast from Cedar Keys to Key West. When asked 

 what Mr. Batty purchased, it was again "almost anything 

 that wore feathers, but more particularly the Herons, Spoon- 

 bills, and showy birds." 



Mr. Batty was, he told me, well known all along the Gulf 

 Coast, and had made regular trips to this region for the past 

 three winters or more. He was the gentleman I heard of at 

 Hickory Bluff, who bought birds, travelling about the coast in a 

 small schooner and supplying the native gunners with breech- 

 loading shot guns and ammunition. Mr. Johnson had bought a 

 gun of Mr. Batty and was using it when I met him. One barrel 

 of this gun was for shot, 12-guage, and the other was a small 

 bore rifled. This last, Johnson explained to me, he used for 

 Pelicans and other wild birds, and as it made so little noise, was 

 serviceable in getting the smaller Herons at close range in the 

 rookeries. 



I shall give later more details of Mr. Batty and his method of 

 working, as I met him and stayed about for some five or six. days 

 where he was killing birds. Togo on with Mr. Johnson. He 

 had lived about here for many years, and told me of the enormous 

 rookeries and breeding places that had formerly been the homes 

 of the birds of this region. Now most of them were entirely 

 deserted, and the number of those still resorted to by an ever 

 decreasing population were yearly becoming smaller ; that it 

 was easy to find thousands of birds, five or six years back, where 

 absolutely none existed now. My own observation leads me to 

 agree with this statement, but, in fact, the destruction must have 

 been greater than can be realized. 



