1 887-] Scott on the Bird Rookeries of Southern Florida. 2*7C) 



case with some of the commoner shore birds, notably Macrorham- 

 phus griseus which I have seen in flocks of a dozen or more at 

 John's Pass, on this coast, as late as June 20. 



The migration of shore birds to-day was much the same as that 

 noted at Little Gasparilla, Knots, Red-backed Sandpipers, 

 Black-bellied Plovers and Sanderlings still going north in small 

 flocks. 



Saturday, May 29. At 10 a.m. to-day, the weather having 

 cleared, we again started north and reached Big Sarasota Pass, 

 where we went inside and anchored for the night. On the way 

 we saw large flocks of Terns and Gulls, and all of the species 

 spoken of above appeared to be quite abundant. This was 

 marked in the case of Cabot's Tern, which was equally common 

 with Forster's Tern. Other birds, such as Brown Pelicans and 

 Man-o'-war Birds, were observed in very small numbers, and all 

 of the species seen were wary and avoided as far as possible the 

 vicinity of our boat. I learned from citizens at Sarasota that 

 the bird rookeries, once so characteristic of the bay, were all 

 deserted by their former occupants, the birds having been pur- 

 sued without mercy by the plume hunters, and in all the cruising 

 that I did in this bay T found no roosting or breeding places of 

 Herons, Cormorants, or Pelicans. 



Sunday, May 30. To-day was spent in cruising the shore of 

 Sarasota Bay, which took all of the forenoon, and in the after- 

 noon we were rnnning up the Manatee shore of Tampa Bay, 

 trying to find the bird rookeries that Mr. Frank Higel had told 

 us of at Casey's Pass. We went along this shore till almost 

 dark, looking carefully for any signs of birds. By half-past five 

 in the afternoon we were some eighteen miles from the mouth 

 of the Manatee River, which we had passed at one o'clock. 

 This was near our objective point, and if the countless birds de- 

 scribed by Mr. Higel as formerly breeding in this vicinity were 

 anywhere within five miles of us, I felt pretty confident of seeing 

 some of them going to roost after sundown. As a matter of 

 fact, I did see some half a dozen Herons and about fifty White 

 Ibises, all of them flying so far back into the interior that I lost 

 sight of them. If there was any large rookery on this shore I 

 was unable to find it, though a good part of the morning of the 

 31st was devoted to a closer inspection, and we used the small 

 boat to go nearer to the shores than we could get in the 'Tanta- 

 lus.' 



