American Egrets in New York City 



By CLARK L. LEWIS, JR., New York City 

 With a photograph by the author 



LAST summer- (1916) three beautiful American Egrets {Herodias egretla) 

 made their appearance in Van Cortlandt Park, New York City. They 

 were reported to have arrived on July 16. As the neighborhood appealed 

 to them, they settled down in the vicinity of the pond, at the southern-most 

 extremity of the Park, and remained for a number of weeks. The birds finally 

 disappeared, one by one, the first to leave quitting the Park sometime around 

 August 10, the next, a few days later, and the remaining Egret on October 10. 

 Their roosts were located somewhere in the northern part of the Park wood- 

 lands, just where I do not know. At the approach of dusk the Egrets would 

 rise into the air and fly northward. Their flight was slow and graceful, and 

 often I would watch them until they were lost from sight in the darkening 

 horizon. Every morning found them back at the pond where they spent the 

 long summer days, feeding upon small fish, insects, and other forms of Heron 

 food. 



The neighborhood of the pond seemed far too civilized and noisy to warrant 

 any length of stay for these birds, whose habitual haunts are semi-tropical 

 swamps and marshes. The pond is bordered on the north by a much-used 

 automobile road-way, on the east by a branch line of the New York Central 

 Rail Road, on the west by Broadway with its noise of passing vehicles, Sub- 

 way trains, trolley cars and never-ceasing crowds of pedestrains, and on the 

 south by a small strip of land which boasted of a few trees and wild vegeta- 

 tion. Tall grass formed a border around the pond. The water was practically 

 open and thus afforded the Egrets plenty of room to move about. 



However, this change of atmosphere and surroundings did not seem to 

 trouble these beautiful white creatures, but made them rather unsuspecting 

 and fearless. Excellent observations of the birds, some as close as eight to 

 ten feet, were obtained. On September 9 I took several photographs of the 

 remaining bird. The one shown here gives a characteristic pose. 



[To one who has known the Egret when every man's hand was raised against 

 it, and nearly every woman's head bore the aigrette plumes which gave 

 eloquent, if silent, testimony to her heartlessness, it is as surprising as it is 

 pleasing to observe that under proper protection this beautiful bird may again 

 become a part of our lives. 



In a vain effort to rob it of protection in New York, the milliners' agents 

 claimed that the Egret did not belong to the fauna of that state, but the photo- 

 graph and observations of Mr. Lewis are welcome evidence to the contrary. 

 (See also Mr. Rogers' note on page 276.) — Ed.] 



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