The Home-Life of the American Egret 



6i 



nous ai 

 hcd the 

 >lam Vn 



element 

 r(\L:;i()n in 

 .kerv. 



of loeal l.irddite ilia 

 vhieh tlu'N- livi'd, 1 SI 



llie evening 

 11 ill dozens 



iiilelli 



istlll 



rihle 



aclion> 



as I rca( 

 le >lill di: 



at iii^litfall of liirds to their nests, or l( 

 ii> of that interest whieh is attached to 



le knowledge that the creature has a delinite plan or purpose 

 asize our kinship with it. So we mark the homeward tlight of 

 Heron or of Crow, and, knowing whither they are bound, travel with them in 

 fancy to the journey's end. This has been 

 a fatal habit for the Herons. It mattered 

 little how secludi'd was the rookerv; the 

 hunter found it simpl\- 1)\- following 

 their line of tlight. 



My way to the home of tlie white- 

 plumed birds was less direct. For hours 

 a little home-made tug, with a swelling 

 wave at her bow, took me through a 

 succession of bays, canals, cut-offs and 

 serpentine creeks, frightening the Galli- 

 nules and Blackbirds in the reeds, and 

 surprising an occasional alligator on his 

 favorite mud bank. 



A night's rest, and in the morning 

 the journey was resumed through ])ark- 

 like ])ine forests and under the moss- 

 hung live-oaks, with every tree and 

 ])lant b}- leaf and blossom, and ever\- 

 bird b}- plumage and voice, proclaim- 

 ing the sweetness, beauty and joy of 

 May. Ten miles of spring's pageant 

 brought me to the moat of the Egrets' 

 stronghold. Here I entered a boat, to 

 pass through an apparentl\- endless 

 l^ooded forest. 



There are delights of the water and 

 delights of the wood, but when both are 

 combined and one's canoe-path leads through a forest, and that of cypress clad 

 in new lace-Hke foliage and draped with swaying gray moss, one's exultation 

 of spirit passes all measurable bounds. No snapping of twigs or rustling of 

 leaves betrays one. We paddled so easily, so noiselessly, that we seemed as 

 much inhabitants of the place as the great alligators that sank at our approach. 



The Fish Hawks whistled plaintively, but settled on their nests as w-e passed 

 below- them; the Wood Ducks led their broods to the deeper woods; Pileated 



LOUISI.\N.\ HERON ON ITS NEST 



