140 MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. 



to those occupied by the Great Blue Heron, and generally associating in 

 the same colony with them. For many years they have been known to 

 breed in Knox and Gibson counties. We know that it still breeds in some, 

 and did very recently in all, of at least six or eight of the counties in northern 

 Indiana; also that it is very rarely indeed observed in its northward migra- 

 tions before breeding time. This indicates that these herons migrate by 

 night. Mr. McBride says that at the heronries at Golden Lake, Steuben 

 county [which borders Michigan], for several years, he often saw a few of 

 these among the many Great Blue Herons, and while satisfied they nested, 

 he could not determine which nest was theirs. Mr. Woodruff says "Mr. 

 Chas. Eldridge found this bird breeding at Kouts, Porter county, Illinois, 

 May 1885, and took a large number of their eggs. He found their nests 

 in the same trees with those of the Great Blue Heron. He adds that he 

 visited the heronries in June, 1896, and did not see a single specimen of 

 the White Egret" (Birds of Indiana, 1897, 660). 



According to Kumlien and Hollister the Greater Egret was a common 

 bird on the larger marshes and swamps bordering the inland lakes and 

 rivers of Wisconsin 25 to 50 years ago. "Of late years, thanks to bar- 

 barous plume hunters, it is rare, so rare at the present time that three 

 or four individuals only visit Lake Koshkonong each year where hundreds 

 were found thirty years ago during August and September. Young un- 

 able to fly were taken from a colony in a tamarack swamp near Jeffer- 

 son in July 1863. It was found breeding with a large colony of Great 

 Blue Herons to the westward of Two Rivers in June, 1880, also reported 

 as nesting near Waukesha in 1866" (Birds of Wisconsin, p. 35). 



I can add nothing personally to the life history of this species in Michigan. 

 We know that its food is similar to that of the Great Blue Heron; that it 

 nests in trees, building bulky nests of sticks, and laying three to five blue 

 eggs, rather darker than those of the Great Blue Heron, and averaging 

 2.28 by 1.60 inches. 



Southward, where the species formerly was very abundant and nested 

 in large colonies, known as "rookeries" or "heronries," there was great 

 variation in the position of the nests; sometimes these were placed in the 

 tops of lofty trees, even 100 to 150 feet above the ground, at other times 

 on low mangroves not six feet above the water, while other nests occupied 

 intermediate positions (Baird, Brewer and Ridgway). 



TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 



Adult in breeding plumage: Entire plumage snowy white; a train or large bundle 

 of long, dissected plumes falls from the middle of the back, their tips almost or quite 

 touching the groimd when the bird stands erect. Legs and feet black; bill yellow or 

 greenish yellow. After the breeding season the long aigrette plumes are lost, but other- 

 wise there is little change in the plumage. The young resemble the adults except for the 

 absence of the long plumes. Length 37 to 41 inches; wing 14.10 to 16.80; culmen 4.20 

 to 4.90; tarsus 5.50 to 6.80. 



