280 Scott on the Bird Rookeries of Southern Florida. [October 



Monday, May 31. Spent most of the morning, from daylight 

 until 11 A. M., in exploring the shores in the small boat, and not 

 finding anything that indicated the presence of breeding birds in 

 the vicinity we finally gave up the search. I afterward learned 

 from Mr. Alfred Mears, of John's Pass, that formerly there had 

 been a very considerable rookery at this point, which had suf- 

 fered, as had the others of the region, from plume hunters, and 

 had finally been totally abandoned by the hundreds of birds 

 which once frequented this point. Giving up the search for the 

 rookery here, I determined to go across Tampa Bay proper and 

 examine three places where I had been six years before, in Old 

 Tampa Bay, at each of which points all of the commoner Her- 

 ons, Brown Pelicans, and Cormorants were then breeding by 

 hundreds. 



The first of these rookeries was at a place known as Papy's 

 Bayou, and we reached here late in the afternoon, but though I 

 looked the once familiar ground over carefully, I found only a 

 few Green Herons breeding, and at dusk perhaps twenty Amer- 

 ican Egrets came in to roost. We remained at anchor near here 

 all night, and the scarcity of birds was as marked as at any point 

 we had so far visited. 



Tuesday, June 1. To-day was spent in visiting the other two 

 places where I had once seen birds so abundant. One of these 

 points is known as the Double Branches, and the other as Rocky 

 Creek. Formerly I had seen birds breeding here in great num- 

 bers, and Reddish Egrets had been the most conspicuous feature 

 of these breeding grounds in those days. But now how different ! 

 Not a single pair of birds of any kind did I find nesting, and only 

 at rare intervals were any kind of Herons to be observed. Not 

 a single Brown Pelican or Cormorant was seen, though a little 

 island at Rocky Creek had once been the nesting ground of 

 many hundred of each species. Not a Reddish Egret and only 

 a few frightened and wary Louisiana Herons were seen, and 

 these were not breeding. At one point a flock of Roseate Spoon- 

 bills were feeding on a sandbar, but we did not get nearer than 

 a quarter of a mile to them. Formerly I had seen many hun- 

 dreds of these birds feeding and roosting in the vicinity of these 

 rookeries, and they were then so tame and fearless that one could 

 approach so as almost to touch the birds. Late in the day I de- 

 termined to go to the town of Pinellas, which is on old Tampa 



