1 86 



BIRDS OF AMERICA 



EGRET 

 Herodias egretta {Gniclin) 



A. O. U. Number 196 See Color IMate 24 



Other Names. — American Egret ; White Heron ; 

 White Egret: Greater Egret; Great White Egret; 

 Great White Heron; Long White. 



Description. — Length, 41 inches. No crest, but a 

 magnificent train of long plumes springing from back 

 and extending a foot or so beyond tail in breeding 

 season; pliiiiiiicjc. t-iitircly while: bill, yellow; legs and 

 feet, black ; lores and iris, yellow. 



Nest and Eggs. — Nest; Merely a platform of sticks 



in mangroves or in trees. Eggs: 3 to 5, plain bluish- 

 green. 



Distribution. — Temperate and tropical America; 

 breeds in Oregon and California, and from North Caro- 

 lina, Florida, the Gulf coast, and Mexico south to Pata- 

 gonia; formerly bred north to New Jersey and 

 Wisconsin ; winters from the Gulf of Mexico south- 

 ward ; casual in Manitoba, Quebec, New England, and 

 Nova Scotia. 



The treatment which man has accorded the 

 Egret is not only an evidence of his power over 

 weaker animals, but stands as a blot on this 

 country's history. The long white plumes, which 

 this bird bears on its back in the mating and 

 nesting season, have long been sought as adorn- 

 ments for women's headwear. The only way to 

 get these " aigrettes '' is to shoot the bird, and 

 shoot it at the time it is engaged in the care of 

 its nestlings. At other seasons it is wild , and 

 only with great difficulty can one approach to 

 within shooting distance, before it takes wing. 



The plumes are acquired early in the year but 

 not until the birds have accumulated in colonies, 

 and laid their eggs, can the hunter hope for 

 success. Even then the wise millinery agents 

 wait until the rookery is ripe. By " ripe " they 

 mean when the eggs have hatched. If the shoot- 

 ing begins in a colony before this time, the birds 

 will frequently desert their nests and eggs. Thus 

 in order to get the most satisfactory results the 

 plume-htmter must be content to wait until the 

 young appear, and the instinct of parental care 

 is so aroused that the old birds will return 

 again and again despite the fact that they see 

 their comjjanions falling all about them before 

 the guns of the inhuman hunters. This method 

 of attack on any species if long continued means 

 its doom. When old and young alike perish no 

 chance remains to perpetuate the species. 



In the far W'est a few Egrets still are found, 

 but very rarely. They appear never to have 



reached the abundance there that they did in the 

 Southern States. At one time the lake-shores of 

 Florida teemed with tens of thousands of these 

 elegant, long-legged white creatures. Several 

 years ago I visited rookeries containing great 

 numbers of them, but even then the work of 

 destruction was going on. While visiting a 

 plume-hunter's camp in 1886 I was told that the 

 New York feather dealers paid ninety cents for 

 the plumes of every bird. Since that time the 

 price has gone up and up until recently tourists 

 at Miami and Palm Beach have been paying $10 

 and more for the scalp of each bird brought in 

 by the white hunters and Seminole Indians of 

 the Everglade country. 



For several years past the National Associa- 

 tion of Audubon Societies has been employing 

 guards to protect the few remaining breeding 

 colonies as far as they are known. These nest- 

 ing places are distributed from the coastal region 

 of North Carolina southward to the Florida 

 Keys, but it is debatable whether the species can 

 be saved, although without the efforts of the 

 Audubon Society the bird would probably have 

 disappeared entirely by this time. 



This member of the Heron family often asso- 

 ciates in the nesting season with other Herons. 

 The loose nests of twigs are placed in the top of 

 bushes or on the limbs of cypress trees high 

 above the waters of the sequestered swamps into 

 which these birds have long since been driven. 



T. Gilbert Th.-^rson. 



