2 20 Scott on the Bird Rookeries of Southern Florida. [April 



them chasing the small Gulls, obliging them to give up fish 

 just caught. Again they are to be seen in the wake of a school 

 of porpoises, taking whatever comes in their way, such as muti 

 lated fish and the like. 



In the nests of the Great Blue Herons in the rookery, four nests 

 in all, I was surprised to find young birds. In most cases they 

 were nearly ready to fly, but one nest contained chicks not more 

 than two weeks old. This, taken in connection with the fact of 

 their having half grown young as early as February 7, at Tarpon 

 Springs — a point more than a hundred miles north — is indica- 

 tive of a long breeding season — at least five or six months — and 

 the probability that two broods are hatched. However, this late 

 breeding may not be normal, for the birds are all so harassed 

 and driven about by plume hunters, that their plans for breeding 

 are evidently greatly disarranged. 



Perhaps the following facts will make this more apparent to 

 the reader and corroborate the above statement. 



I have several times taken the different species of Herons and 

 Egrets at roosting rookeries where there was not a single nest, 

 and far away from any known breeding ground, which had in 

 their ovaries fully developed eggs with shells on. Some of them 

 had evidently laid one or more eggs and, being severely frightened 

 by hunters, had deserted their breeding grounds. At such rookeries 

 I have frequently found broken eggs lying on the ground, though 

 there would be no nests on the island and the birds would only 

 come to roost late in the afternoon and leave very early in the 

 morning. 



Again during the late summer and early fall months of the 

 present year I have twice found inland rookeries where the nests 

 still contained some eggs and where there were young birds of 

 all ages. One such case was near Tarpon Springs where several 

 hundred birds were breeding, August 26, 1SS6. At this date 

 there were unhatched eggs in the nests, besides young in all 

 stages, from those just hatched to those ready to fly. The 

 birds were mainly Ardea cccrulca, though there were a few A. 

 riificollis tricolor , and A. candidissima. 



At the rookery last mentioned before this digression, I spent 

 the day after eleven o'clock, and as I did not fire a gun during 

 the time there was ample opportunity to examine the various 

 species that were breeding, and those that came to roost there at 



