Wayne: Birds of South Carolina, 29 



measure 2.50X1.50. As far as I have been able to ascertain, 

 only one brood is raised in a season. 



This species is locally known as the "Poor Jo," and is, as 

 a rule, very shy, but when not molested it is absolutely 

 fearless, frequently coming to within fifty yards of my house to 

 feed. The Great Blue Heron is as much a nocturnal species as 

 the Black-crowned and Yellow-crowned Night Herons, and it is 

 not uncommon to hear it nearly every night on' the various 

 sounds and creeks while flying over or feeding. 



68. Herodias egretta (Gmel.). Egret. 



This beautiful summer resident used to be very abundant on 

 the rice plantations near the coast in spring, summer, and autumn, 

 but at present it is very locally distributed, being entirely absent 

 in some locaUties while comparatively abundant in others, es- 

 pecially where it is afforded protection. 



The species has been, and still is, mercilessly shot for its 

 plumes (which are present only in the breeding season) for 

 millinery purposes, and the day is not distant when it will be 

 absolutely extinct unless laws are made and enforced for its pro- 

 tection. These birds are now so very shy that the sight of a 

 human being causes them to take wing when they are more than 

 a quarter of a mile away. 



That this warfare has been waged against these birds for a 

 very long time is evinced by the following quotation from Au- 

 dubon's Birds of America: ^ 



The long plumes of this bird being in request for ornamental purposes, they are 

 shot in great numbers while sitting on their eggs, or soon after the appearance of 

 the young. I know a person who, on offering a double-barrelled gun to a gentle- 

 man near Charleston, for one hundred White Herons fresh killed, received that 

 number and more the next day. 



My friend John Bachman gives me the following account of his visit to one of 

 its breeding places, at the "Round O," a plantation about forty miles from Char- 

 leston: "Our company was composed of Benjamin Logan, S. Lee, and Dr. Martin. 

 We were desirous of obtaining some of the Herons as specimens for stuffing, and 

 the ladies were anxious to procure many of their primary feathers for the purpose 

 of making fans. The trees were high, from a hundred to a hundred and thirty feet 

 and our shot was not the right size; but we commenced firing at the l>ird.= , and 

 soon discovered that we had a prospect of success. Each man took his tree, and 

 loaded and fired as fast as he could. Many of the birds lodged on the highest 

 branches of the cypresses, others fell into the nest, and, in most cases, when shot 

 from a limb, where they had been sitting, they clung to it for some time before 

 they would let go. One thing surprised me: it was the length of time it took for 

 a bird to fall from the place where it was shot, and it fell with a loud noise into 

 the water. Many wounded birds fell some distance off, and we could not conven- 



» VI, 135-136. 



