BIRDS FOUND IN BAYOUS AND MARSHES 95 
197. SNOWY HERON. 
Ardea candidissima. 
Famity: The Herons, Egrets, and Bitterns. 
Length : 23.50. 
Adults: Plumage always pure white. 
Nuptial Plumage: Pure white; ‘‘aigrette” plumes hang like a white 
fringe from interscapular region to beyond the end of the tail ; simi- 
lar plumes on lower neck and forming an occipital crest ; bill black, 
yellow at base ; legs black ; feet yellow. 
Young: Like adults after breeding season ; that is, white, with no inter- 
scapular plumes. 
Geographical Distribution: Temperate and tropical America; on the 
Pacific coast from Oregon to Buenos Ayres. 
Breeding Range: As far north as Oregon. 
Breeding Season: April 15 to June 15. 
Nest: A loosely built platform of sticks ; placed in trees or bushes near 
swamps. 
Eggs: 2 to 5; light bluish. Size 1.80 & 1.20. 
Beauty has proved a fatal dower to this exquisite 
bird, which has become nearly extinct through the ravages 
of the plume-hunters. “The delicate aigrettes which it 
donned as a nuptial dress were its death warrant. 
Woman demanded from the bird its wedding plumes, 
and man has supplied the demand.” The saddest part 
of the whole sad story is the fact, not sentiment, that 
the killing must be done during the nesting season ; 
consequently the young, bereft of both parents, starve in 
the nest. For every dainty aigrette in hair or bonnet, 
a brood of baby herons has suffered excruciating, long- 
continued torture, and death. In California this heron 
is a summer visitant to the interior valleys, but is by no 
means common at any season of the year. 
