HERONS AND BITTERNS. 133 



Kest^ a platform of sticks, generally in colonies, in trees. Eggs^ three to 

 four, pale, dull blue, 2'50 x 1-50. 



Is it due to the influence of the artists of the Orient that these 

 long-legged, long-necked birds are so frequently miscalled "Cranes"''? 

 With head drawn in and legs trailing on behind, they flap slowly over 

 the water, resembling, no doubt, the " Cranes " of fans, screens, and 

 bronzes ; nevertheless, they are Herons. With all a Heron's immovable 

 alertness they watch patiently for passing fish, sometimes wading with 

 extreme caution, placing one foot slowly after the other. They feed 

 both by day and night. Fishes, frogs, reptiles, even small mice, all 

 are welcome ; and all are powerless to escape the lightning thrust of 

 the spearlike bill. Their voice is harsh and rasping, W^hen alarmed 

 they utter a croak which is sometimes prolonged into a series of squawks. 

 They nest and roost in colonies, but at other times are solitary birds. 



The European Great Blue IIeron^ (195. Ardea cinerea) is accidental in 

 southern Greenland. It may be distinguished from our species by the white 

 instead of rufous feathers on the legs. 



196. Ardea egretta Gmel. American Egret. Ad. in 'breeding 

 plumage. — Entire plumage pure white; ixhovitfiitj straight "aigrette" plumes 

 grow from the interscapular region and reach beyond the tail ; legs and feet 

 black ; bill yellow ; lores orange, bordered below by greenish. Ad. after the 

 breeding season and Im. — Without the interscapular plumes. L., 41*00; W., 

 15-00 ; Tar., 5-60 ; B., 4-50. 



Range. — Tropical and temperate America; breeds as far north as southern 

 Illinois and Virginia ; after the breeding season sometimes strays northward 

 as far as Manitoba, Quebec, and New Brunswick. 



Washington, not common and irregular S. R., May to August. Long 

 Island, rare from July to Sept. Sing Sing, A. V. 



Nest., a platform of sticks, in colonies, in bushes over water. Eggs^ three 

 to five, dull blue, of a rather deeper shade than those of the preceding, 

 2-25 X 1-60. • 



Tourists who went to Florida thirty years ago have told me of 

 prairies white with Egrets, of bushy islands glistening in the sun like 

 snow banks. Now you may look for miles along a lake shore and per- 

 haps in the distance see a solitary Egret, which, as you approach, with 

 a frightened squawk takes wing a rifle-shot away. The rapid exter- 

 mination of these plume-bearing birds is startling evidence of man's 

 power in the animal world. At his word a species is almost imme- 

 diately wiped out of existence. I have heard a " plume-hunter" boast 

 of killing three hundred Herons in a "rookery" in one afternoon. 

 Another proudly stated that he and his companions had killed one 

 hundred and thirty thousand birds — Herons, Egrets, and Terns — dur- 

 ing one winter. But the destruction of these birds is an unpleasant 



