150 BULLETIN 135^ UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



75 to 100 pairs each, when last visited in 1913. He says that the 

 nests are in every way similiar to those of the white-faced glossy 

 ibis, reeds, and rushes being used to form the platform which is 

 attached to the growing tules ; in some instances the nests have been 

 built of small twigs and branches of the sage ; and in other cases no 

 nests have been made, the eggs simply being deposited in a well- 

 defined depression in the broken and matted down tules of the pre- 

 vious year. 



Eggs. — The snowy egret lays ordinarily four or five eggs, sometimes 

 only three and rarely as many as six. These are ovate or oval in 

 shape, generally near the latter. The shell is smooth with little or 

 no gloss. The color is pale bluish green, varying from " pale Niagara 

 green " to " pale glaucous green." The measurements of 46 eggs aver- 

 age 43 by 32.4 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes meas- 

 ure 48.4 by 33.3, 41.2 by 33.6, 40 by 31, and 42.5 by 30.5 milli- 

 meters. 



Young. — Edward A. Mcllhenny (1912) says that the period of incu- 

 bation is 18 days. Both sexes apparently share in the incubation and 

 the care of the young. Wilham L. Dawson (1915) discovered a breed- 

 ing colon}^ of snowy egrets in Merced County, in California, in which 

 he says that he estabhshed the fact that this species 



deposits its eggs every other day, and the complementary fact that incubation 

 begins with the deposition of the first egg. Indeed it could not well be other- 

 wise, for a single day's exposure to that blazing interior sun would addle an egg 

 however hardy. The youngsters showed, as the days passed, an exaggerated 

 disparity in size and strength, yet even when a week old appeared amazingly 

 small and helpless. Neither did they appear at all pugnatious as do baby squawks, 

 but drew away timidly at the approach of the hand, and for the rest divided their 

 time between panting lustily and scrambling about in search of shade. 



Mr. Mcllhenny (1912) says that the parent birds, at first during 

 the warmer hours of the day shield the young birds from the sun 

 under their drooping wings, as shown in one of his photographs. When 

 10 days old they show a marvellous appetite and are always clamor- 

 ing for food. Either the father or mother bird watches the young- 

 sters constantly, and when the absent mate returns they caress and 

 coo, being a most loving pair, as if they had not seen each other for 

 a week. In from 20 to 25 days the youngsters leave the nest and 

 spend the day perched on the twigs of the home branch, going back 

 to the nest at night. The young are fed on regurgitated food in the 

 same manner as described under the previous species, in which the 

 display of plumes is a pretty feature. How can any one who has 

 witnessed such a picture of beautiful home life have the heart to 

 break it up ? 



Plumagcf! — The downy young snowy egret is much like that of 

 the American egret, but smaller of course. The forehead, crown, occi- 

 put, and sides of the head are covered with l^ng, hairlike plumes, long- 



