100 BiKDS OF XORTH CAROLINA 



till- IxkUos of two slaughtered Aiidulion wardens, and into the hist eohjiiies of the 

 doomed birds. The butehery of tlie I-^grets has been particularly harrowing because 

 of the fact that the birds liave the plunie.s only during the nesting period, and to 

 kill an Egret for its feathers means the starvation of its brood. 



We know of only one colony of Egrets now in North Carolina; this is located in 

 Brunswick County and is carefully protected by Mr. James Sprunt, on whose pro])- 

 erty it is situated. We have visited the birds during the nesting period seven differ- 

 ent times within the past twelve years, and have found them just about holding 

 their own in numbers. The colony contained probably twenty pairs when discov- 

 ered by Pearson in the sunuuer of ISUS. Their nests were high up in tall cypress 

 trees. The lowest one discovered was at least forty feet and others were fully eighty 

 feet above the water. Pearson also saw two nests with the birds attending them in 

 a small colony on Jones's Mill Pond in Carteret County, June, 1899. Later in 

 the season the place was raided by jjlume-huuters and the birds were killed. Indi- 

 viduals have occasionally been seen elsewhere in the State during the past twenty 

 years. From six to twelve birds are still seen each summer on Lake Ellis. One was 

 killed at Raleigh, June 15, 18S4, and another shot at Chapel Hill in 1894. Two 

 were also recorded by Bishoji at Pea Island, July 30 and August 19, 1904. Francis 

 Harper found a few breeding birds in a colony near Beaufort in July, 1913. 



Genus Egretta (T. Forst.) 

 81. Egretta candidissima candidissima (Gmel.). Snowy Egret. 



Alls, in bree.dinij plumage. — Kntin^ i)luin;ige pure wliitp; about fifty recurved "ainrt'ttc" 

 pluiiu's (^row from thn iiitcrscapiihir r(>Kioii and reach to or just beyond the end of the tail; 

 legs black, feet yellow, bill hlack. yellow at the Ijase; lores orange-yellow. AiIji. after the breeding 

 season and Im. — Without the intcisr^apular plumes. L., 24. (K); \V., 9.7o; Tar., :j.S(); B., 3.20. 

 (ChA\y., Bird^ of E. N. A.) 



Hamje. — Breeds from southern North Carolina southwaid; winters from Florida southward 

 to South America. 



Hanye in North Carolina. — Coastal region in summer; now very rare. 



The fate of the small Snowy Egret is scarcely less sad than that of the large 

 Egret. In fact, today it is decidedly tiie rarer bird. This is the heron from which 

 comes the short curved jihunes known to the millinery trade as "cross aigrettes." 

 Like other herons, these birds assemble in colonies upon the approach of tlie breed- 

 ing sea.son, and to find one nesting place means finding all the birds of the species 

 wliicli are breeding in a surrotmding area of many miles. The one colony of iierons 

 of the first magnitude still remaining in the State is at Crane Neck on the Orton 

 Plantation in Brunswick County. It is situated in a growth of cypress trees 

 in a little bay in the old rice-pond. Here it is i)elieved the Snowy Egret is making 

 its last stand in North Carolina. T(>n or twelve pairs were found there by H. H. 

 Brimley and Pearson in June, 1908. The nests were scattered among those of other 

 small herons, antl the resemblance both of the ne.sts and eggs was such that we 

 found it impossible to identify them positively except in the few instances when tlie 

 birds were actually seen occupying their nests. 



liecords of the Snowy Herons appearing in other parts of the State are few, and 

 several of tiicsc are dubious. Coues regarded the bird as a simimer resident at 



