SNOWY HERON 
197. Egretta candidissima. 24 in. 
Plumage white; in breeding season with numerous 
recurved plumes growing from the middle of the back; 
long crest of plumes on the back of the head, and on 
the breast. Bill black, greenish at the base and abcut 
the eyes: legs black; feet yellow. This species is the 
most beautiful of the Egrets and consequently is the one 
that has suffered most from “plume hunters.”  Al- 
though they are now protected wherever they can be, 
their ranks have been so decimated that extermination 
is threatened within a few years; the demand for their 
plumes is still so great that lawless men will commit 
murder to obtain them (Warden Bradley having been 
shot in 1905, while preventing the destruction of herons 
in Southern Florida). 
Nest—In swamps, in company with other small her- 
ons, the nests being frail platforms of twigs on branches 
of trees. Eggs pale greenish-blue. 
Range.—Breeding range formerly coincident with that 
of the last, but now very rare. 
