go SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I50 



Description. — Length, 510 to 610 mm. ; entire plumage pure white ; 

 bill and tarsus black, feet yellow. 



Measurements. — Males (6 adults, from Florida, Panama, Colom- 

 bia, Venezuela), wing 247-270 (255), tail 86.3-100.0 (90.8), culmen 

 from base 76.6-83.8 (80.2), tarsus 88.5-102.0 (96.5) mm. 



Females (7 from Cuba, Haiti, Puerto Rico, Nicaragua, and Pan- 

 ama), wing 237-257 (241), tail 81.0-92.9 (86.5), culmen from base 

 76.6-81.8 (77.7), tarsus 88.5-101.0 (93.6) mm. 



Resident in part, and in part a winter visitor from the north. Com- 

 mon in the lowlands wherever there is water, from the coastal 

 beaches and mud flats inland, in open marshy areas, and along the 

 larger streams ; casual in the lower levels of the subtropical zone, as 

 at the Lagunas de Volcan (elevation 1,280 meters) in western Chi- 

 riqui. I found them on Isla Coiba, and Rendahl (Ark. Zool., Bd. 13, 

 1920, p. 13) records one taken by Bovallius on Isla Casaya (the only 

 record for the Pearl Islands), but they seem less accustomed to 

 wander from the mainland than the little blue heron. 



There is record of one banded in Louisiana, and taken subsequently 

 near the mouth of the Rio Bayano, and of another marked in 

 Mississippi recovered subsequently at La Jagua. 



The snowy egret is less numerous than the little blue heron but is 

 found regularly in suitable haunts, often feeding alone, occasionally 

 in scattered groups of a dozen. However, in February and March 

 1948, in the coastal region of Herrera, the egret was more common 

 than the little blue heron. 



Their usual method of feeding is that common to the family of 

 standing or walking slowly while watching the water or ground atten- 

 tively. I have seen them occasionally feeding in the wash of waves on 

 the beaches, and once on the Rio Chagres near Juan Mina, where 

 schools of minnows rested at the surface in the warm sun of early 

 morning, I saw an egret in flight just above the surface strike re- 

 peatedly at the fish. This interesting method appeared successful, as 

 I noted that the heron swallowed after some of its strikes. 



In March and April many have the beautiful long plumes on the 

 crown, back, and upper breast that mark the breeding plumage. It is 

 certain that they nest in the republic, though the only definite record 

 at present is a set of 2 eggs collected May 10, 1941, by Maj. Gen. G. 

 Ralph Meyer on Isla Changame off the Pacific entrance of the Pan- 

 ama Canal. The nest was a shallow platform of twigs placed in a 

 low tree. The eggs, slightly elongated elliptical in shape, in color 

 paler than pearl gray, measure 38.4x31.5 and 39.2x31,0 mm. Incu- 



