on some Bahama Birds.



57



give me more pleasure than those of the White Egrets sporting

about with that fearlessness of man who is threatening their

extinction.


The bird, whose actions I have so feebly portrayed, is not

the bird from whom the elongated plumes are generally

procured, but a nearly allied species, the Reddish Egret (Ardea

T 7 tfa). The true Reddish Egret is a bluish bird with a chocolate

coloured neck, and the white specimens were for a long time

supposed to be the young, but as both forms have since been

obtained in the adult, as well as the young, plumage they are

either varieties of one species or two closely allied species.


Several other Herons were met with in these lagoons, but

none so tame and confiding as the above. Of these the

commonest was perhaps the Violet - crowned Night Heron

(.Nyctiardea violaceus), whose harsh scream was frequently to be

heard at dusk. Although very beautiful, it can hardly be styled

an interesting bird, and spends most of the day among the

thickest cover, generally mangroves, wandering abroad

towards evening. It is rather more partial to the sea shore than

the other Herons, where it feeds chiefly on crabs, and is often

shot by moonlight by the natives, who esteem it for food. Never

having summed up courage to try it, I cannot speak of it as an

article of food from personal experience, but I should imagine

the flavour to be very strong. The nest is built low down on a

mangrove, a small isolated bush being generally chosen, round

which, before the eggs are laid, the birds may usually be found.

It is sometimes stupidly tame, hardly realizing one’s approach,

or expecting, by remaining motionless, to escape notice, and so

still do they remain, that on one occasion I was enabled to fulfil

the proverb of catching one by the application of salt to its tail,

or rather my hand on its legs, which latter method seemed to me

the more efficacious.


The little Green Heron (A. bahamensis) is a charming and

common species, of which the Bahama form is quite distinct

from that found on the mainland. Abundant everywhere, it was

always to be seen darting out of some mangrove bush as one

disturbed it, or wandering along the shore recently left by the



