1887.] Scott on the Bird Rookeries of Southern Florida. 28 1 



Bay, to learn anything I could from the people there in regard 

 to the birds of the region. We reached the town about half-past 

 five, and though all that I could get in the way of information 

 was negative in character, yet I saw many flat skins of Florida 

 Cormorants in one man's possession, and when I told him of the 

 Rosy Spoonbills I had seen that morning, he would hardly be- 

 lieve me, as the birds had not been seen in the neighborhood for 

 a couple of years. 



Wednesday, June 2. Leaving the little town of Pinellas early 

 this morning we rounded Point Pinellas, and again were cruising 

 northward in the direction of Tarpon Springs. About three 

 miles from the extreme end of Point Pinellas, in Boga Siega Bav, 

 is the group of islands that once formed what is known as Max- 

 imo Rookery. These islands are so close together, being only 

 divided by shoal and narrow streams of salt water at high tide, 

 that practically they form a single low island. This is at least 

 two hundred acres in extent, and is covered with a dense growth 

 of the several kinds of mangrove and forms a point particularly 

 attractive to birds either as a roosting or breeding place. I had 

 been here six years before, and it fairly teemed with bird life 

 then. Every tree and bush on this large area contained at least 

 one nest, and many contained from two to six or eight nests when- 

 ever the size of the tree permitted. A perfect cloud of birds 

 were always to be seen hovering over the island in the spring and 

 early summer months, and conspicuous among them were Brown 

 Pelicans, Man-o'-war Birds, Reddish Egrets, Florida Cormorants, 

 Louisiana Herons, American Egrets, Snowy Herons, Little 

 Blue Herons, Great Blue Herons, and both kinds of Night 

 Herons. I have tried to give them in the order of their abun- 

 dance, though it is difficult to say, in such an immense congrega- 

 tion, which species predominated. Beside, in comparatively 

 smaller numbers, and yet by hundreds, were White Ibises and 

 Rosy Spoonbills. So far as I was then able to determine, all 

 these species bred here save the Roseate Spoonbill and Man-o'- 

 war bird, the latter being present to prey on the Pelicans and 

 Cormorants, taking from them, whenever possible, the food 

 intended for the young birds. It was truly a wonderful 

 sight, and I have never seen so many thousands of large birds 

 together at any single point. 



We anchored the sloop just off the island and I went ashore 



