260 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1954 



Description. — Breeding plumage: White, with crown, neck, and 

 upper back pink to orange buff. Legs yellow to dull reddish; feet 

 dark brown. Bill yellow, shading to reddish orange near base ; rather 

 stout and blunt. Irides yellow; lores dull orange. Winter and im- 

 mature plumage: Almost wholly white, crown sometimes pale buff; 

 legs yellowish black to greenish black with soles yellow ; bill yellow. 



OLD WORLD STATUS 



Africa. — Herbert Friedmann, curator of birds in the U. S. National 

 Museum, informs me that the cattle egret has increased markedly in 

 South Africa in recent years. On his first trip there in 1924 he saw 

 only a few individuals and all of them in one locality. In 1950 he 

 found them "very numerous in almost all places visited." C. J. Skead 

 has recently studied the status of the species in eastern Cape Province 

 and has published findings in the Ostrich, vol. 23, No. 3, pp. 186-218, 

 December 1952. 



In discussing the definite increase in that region Skead states that he 

 has found no explanation for it, nor has he established any directional 

 movement which might indicate whence the birds have appeared. 



Australia. — This continent presents some interesting facts regarding 

 the cattle egret. All things considered, something of a parallel exists 

 there as it does in the Americas in that the bird may have become 

 established without man's assistance. However, it is certain that 

 one attempt to introduce it was definitely made. Wliether subsequent 

 developments stem from that effort seems rather improbable, but one 

 must judge from the evidence, and here it is. 



In 1933, 18 birds were introduced into the Kimberly Division 

 (Serventy and Whittell, Handbook of birds of western Australia, 

 1948). This attempt apparently did not succeed in establishing the 

 species. In 1950, Tarr, writing in the Emu, vol. 49, pp. 191-192, was 

 not able to find any other attempt at introduction. 



Herbert Deignan, associate curator of birds of the U. S. National 

 Museum, added the cattle egret to the known fauna of northern Aus- 

 tralia in 1948. He then saw flocks of as many as 100 birds and ob- 

 tained two specimens at Oenpelli, Northern Territory. It is his very 

 reasonable opinion that the group of 18 birds that were introduced in 

 1933 and that disappeared could hardly have been responsible for 

 the hundreds he saw at a locality 400 miles away years later. Much 

 of the country intervening is totally unsuited to the bird's needs. 

 Therefore, he suggests that it must be considered at least that the 

 birds in the Northern Territory are the result of a "nonhuman dis- 

 persal." The cattle egret is a notorious wanderer ; of that there has 

 been, and stiU is, abundant evidence. 



