NORTH AMERICAN MARSH BIRDS 147 



downward, the wings are partially open and raised, and the plumes 

 of the back are elevated and spread, with their curving tips waving 

 in the air. Such a picture must be seen to be appreciated; no 

 written words or printed photograph can do it justice. 



During the mating season the males are quite quarrelsome and 

 many little combats are seen, involving two or three birds. Stand- 

 ing erect with wings spread and crest raised, they spar with half open 

 beaks or strike heavy blows with their wings, until one has enough 

 and retires. Audubon (1840) describes the courtship, as follows: 



At the approach of the breeding season, many spend a great part of the day 

 at their roosting places, perched on the low trees principally growing in the water 

 when every now and then they utter a rough guttural sort of sigh, raising at the 

 same moment their beautiful crest and loose recurved plumes, curving the neck, 

 and rising on their legs to their full height, as if about to strut on the branches. 

 They act in the same manner while on the ground mating. Then the male, with 

 great ardor, and the most graceful motions, passes and repasses for several min- 

 utes at a time before and around the female, whose actions are similiar, although 

 she displays less ardor. When disturbed on such occasions, they rise high in 

 the air, sail about and over the spot in perfect silence, awaiting the departure of 

 the intruder, then sweep along, exhibiting the most singular movements, now and 

 then tumbling over and over like the tumbler pigeon, and at length alight on a 

 tree. On the contrary, when you intrude upon them while breeding, they rise 

 silently on wing, alight on the trees near, and remain there until you depart. 



Nesting. — During the first decade of this century, when my earher 

 visits to Florida were made, the numbers of this pretty little egret 

 were about at their lowest ebb. We did not see any snowy egrets 

 anjT'where except in the breeding rookeries with other species and 

 even there they were very shy. There were still a few left in the big 

 rookeries on the upper St. Johns. Here we spent all of one day, April 

 20, 1902, and part of another in the largest of the rookeries at Brad- 

 dock Lake, where hundreds of Louisiana herons and many little blue 

 herons wore breeding, among which were a few snowy egrets. We 

 were unable to determine how man}^ of this species were nesting there 

 and I succeeded in positively identifying only two nests of the snowy 

 egret. This rookery was on a small muddy island, in the middle of 

 the great marsh, covered with a thick growth of small willows from 

 12 to 15 feet high. Although all three species of herons were very 

 tame, alighting on the trees all about us, they were very careful not 

 to settle down on any of the nests within sight of us; it was only 

 by lying for hours carefully hidden under some thick clumps of large 

 ferns that I was able to satisfactorily identify a few nests. The first 

 nest of snowy egret, containing four eggs, was placed 8 feet up in a 

 slender willow and was merely a flimsy platform of small sticks. The 

 second nest held five eggs and was located only 5 feet up in a leaning 

 willow; it was made of larger sticks and lined with line twigs. Neither 

 the nests nor the eggs of the snowy egret are in any way distinguish- 

 able, so far as I could determine, from those of either the Louisiana 



