266 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 195 4 



what they are, are inescapable. The most reasonable explanation 

 would appear to be that there were a few scattered birds seen with 

 white herons feeding with cattle — so commonplace that no one thought 

 of examining any closely. 



At any rate, the definite establishment of the species in this country 

 was by means of photography, but the photographer did not realize 

 that history was being made on his film I On March 12, 1952, Richard 

 Borden was photographing white herons with cattle on the Eagle Bay 

 Ranch, northeastern shore of Lake Okeechobee. He assumed that 

 they were snowy egrets. Later in the spring, after returning to his 

 home in Massachusetts, he examined this film in detail because of the 

 fact that the cattle egret had appeared in that region, and it was found 

 tliat Borden had pictures of the species without being aware of having 

 taken them. 



Slightly more than a month after he had made tlie film, the first 

 cattle egret to be obtained in this country was taken near Wayland, 

 Mass., by W. H. Drury, Jr., A. H. Morgan, and R. Stackpole, on 

 April 23, 1952 (Auk, vol. 70, p. 364, 1953). These observers saw 

 Borden's film and confirmed the fact that some of the white herons 

 at Eagle Bay Ranch were Bubulcus ibis ibis. Borden later commented 

 on his achievement in the Bulletin of the Massachusetts Audubon 

 Society (April 1953, p. 139) under the title "Was My Face Red ?" In 

 this interesting article he undertook, with good reason, to needle me 

 for not having discovered that the bird was present in the Okeechobee 

 area where I was conducting Audubon wildlife tours and passing the 

 Eagle Bay Ranch four days each week ! My only explanation lies in 

 the above-mentioned fact that white herons feeding with cattle were 

 so much a part of the local scenery that they were simply pointed out 

 to visitors as such, often at some distance. 



From that time on, records began to multiply and take form. On 

 June 1, 1952, Louis A. Stimson, of Miami, Fla., saw 10 cattle egrets 

 on the north shore of Lake Okeechobee, 17 miles west of Okeechobee 

 City, at the Indian Prairie Canal. Knowing tliat I was then engaged 

 in a revision of Howell's "Florida Birdlife," he at once notified 

 me of this observation. Stimson has continued to take an active 

 interest in the species in Florida, and many of his findings will be 

 mentioned later. 



During the summer of 1952, two cattle egrets appeared at Cape 

 JMay, N, J., and were seen by numerous observers. Stimson reported 

 one bird at Lake Harbor (south shore of Lake Okeechobee) on August 

 24, and four at the same place on August 31. The next report was from 

 Massachusetts, where one bird was seen near Cambridge (Charles 

 River) November 27-28, and one was taken on November 28 at North 

 Truro. 



The 1952 records came to a spectacular close when a specimen was 



