136 FLORIDA BIRD-LIFE 



Warden Guy Bradley in May, 1903. Mr. Bent's notes on 

 the birds found breeding there have been recorded in "The 

 Auk" (XXI, 1904, pp. 20-29:259-270), while in his " Wild 

 Wings" Mr. Job has given a graphic account of his exper- 

 ience. 



I made four attempts to reach Cuthbert Bookery before 

 succeeding. In May, 1904, while en ■ ru ute to it, I was inter- 

 cepted by Warden Bradley in the Keys, near Tavenier 

 Creek, with news that the rookery had been ' ' shot out. ' ' 

 Under his guardianship, the "white birds" had increased 

 to numbers, which, with aigrettes selling at thirty-two dol- 

 lars an ounce, made the venture worth the risk, (for there 

 was a risk ; as the man who attempted to ' ' shoot out ' ' a 

 rookery while Bradley was on guard would probably have 

 lost his own "plume") ; the warden was watched and in his 

 absence his charges were slaughtered. The man who was 

 with Bradley when he returned to the rookery told me "you 

 could a-walked right around the ruke-ry on them birds' 

 bodies ; between four and five hundred of ' em. ' ' 



The following year, while working toward Cuthbert, my 

 outfit was destroyed by fire and operations, necessarily, 

 were postponed. That summer, Bradley was shot while on 

 duty, a death he had long predicted, and no further effort 

 was made to visit the rookery until 1907, when the plan was 

 defeated by conditions encountered in the Bahamas. In 

 1908, however, the trip was made without mishap and, once 

 started, proved to be a by no means difficult undertaking. 

 My special object in visiting Cuthbert was to make studies 

 on which to base a group of Roseate Spoonbills. When not 

 disturbed, these birds were said to lay in February and if 

 all went well the}' might be found with young the latter part 

 of March, before a possible looting of the rookery by 

 plumers. 



On March 25, therefore, with A. C. Bent, whose former 

 experience proved of much value, and Louis Fuertes, I 

 sailed from Miami, at noon, on the "Pearl," a 40-foot jig- 



