272 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1954 



curiously enough, I have not seen a cattle egret do this, though many 

 others have. (I have since seen such behavior once.) Mrs. Sprunt 

 witnessed a curious incident during the winter of 1954 at Okeechobee. 

 She was watching a cattle egret feeding beside a cow that was grazing 

 at the side of a canal. The cow started down the canal bank, followed 

 closely by the egi^et. The animal entered the water, the bird jumped 

 up to its back, rode across the canal thereon, and as the cow climbed 

 out dropped off to the ground on the other side I 



The close proximity maintained by the bird to cattle is little short 

 of astonishing. It is a positive wonder that they are not stepped on ! 

 It keeps pace with the animal continually, usually close by the head 

 but sometimes near the fore or hind feet, and occasionally under the 

 belly. Wlien an insect is disturbed, the bird darts out, secures it, and 

 returns. Now and then, it reaches up and picks off something from 

 the body of the cow, or its legs. Whether these tidbits are flies, ticks, 

 or what, I do not know, but it is a frequent practice. At times, the 

 cow may be seen to push the bird aside with its muzzle, but appears 

 not to object otherwise to the immediate closeness of its satellite. 



A very peculiar and, as far as I know, unexplained characteristic 

 of the bird is the habit of weaving the head and neck from side to 

 side. It is a most interesting bit of behavior to watch. A bird will 

 suddenly stop feeding, stand perfectly upright, and weave the upper 

 part of the body in a sort of hula-like motion. After a few of these 

 movements it resumes feeding. This habit has never been witnessed 

 in any native herons of this country in the writer's lifelong experi- 

 ence with all of them. 



On one occasion during February 1954, in the Okeechobee area, I 

 was informed that cattle egrets had been seen feeding with horses 

 in the same manner as cattle. This is not to be wondered at in a cow 

 country. 



The standing position of the bird is rather erect. The neck is short 

 and thick, compared with a snowy egi-et, and the plumes are much 

 shorter and with no recurve at the tip. The flight is performed with 

 rapid beats of the wings and the neck is carried in the usual heron 

 manner. 



FOOD 



The food of the cattle egret is, of course, an important considera- 

 tion in evaluating its status, both present and future, as a new species 

 in the New World. Generally speaking, it varies rather widely from 

 the usual conception of heron diet (aside from the snowy egret's tend- 

 ency to take insects at times). As far as is now known, the following 

 can be said with some certainty: 



Grasshoppers figure to a very considerable extent. So, also, do 

 crickets. Sloss mentions that the Long Island specimen took angle- 

 worms. Mrs. Hames stated that dragonflies figured in the food of 



