Birds of Indiana. 661 



where these birds were found a quarter of a century ago in an in- 

 numerable company, arrayed in dazzling white where lagoons were 

 bordered by their snowy forms, and the bushy breeding grounds cov- 

 ering a wide area, glistened in the sun, they have, at fashion's 

 bidding, been offered upon the altar, and countless as their 

 numbers seemed to be, they have in a very few short years been al- 

 most exterminated for the adornment of the women of our own and 

 other lands. An excellent article on this subject is given by W. E. D. 

 Scott in the Auk, 1887, p. 135. 



They pass the winter farther south than the Great Blue Heron and 

 are a little later in beginning their migrations in the spring. Yet I 

 feel satisfied that they migrate much earlier than we have been accus- 

 tomed to think. Mr. Nelson mentions its occurrence at Evanston 111., 

 March 31, 1895. (Birds of Northeastern Illinois, p. 131.) The earliest 

 record for Indiana is that given by Prof. Evermann from l^loomington, 

 April 10, 1887. I have records for that month from Putnam and De- 

 catur counties, outside of the region where they breed. A few straggle 

 along through May. 



One was found as far away from the swamps where they 

 breed as Decatur County, June 23, 1894. The latter part of July 

 they begin to wander about the country in numbers, sometimes 

 singly, but often in small flocks of two to a dozen, and occasion- 

 ally in larger bodies of twenty-five to thirty individuals, gradually 

 making their way southward. A summer when there has been ample 

 rainfall and the leaves of the fringing trees along the rivers are dense 

 and dark green, the sight of a large fiock of these snow-white birds 

 fljdng through them or alighted among their foliage is one that ever 

 clings to me as a memory of such an August. I have never seen them at 

 Brookville earlier than July 27 (1887) or later than August 11 (1886). 

 There is no record of their occurrence in the Whitewater Valley in 

 spring. Mr. F. M. Woodruff, in speaking of a trip into Lake County, 

 August 18, 1885, says: "As we passed through the long stretch of 

 swamp woods lying between Whiting and Clark stations we observed 

 large flocks of the American Egret on almost all of the ponds of any 

 size along the line of the road. They did not appear to be frightened 

 by the train, and only those within forty or fifty yards of the train 

 would fly. At Liverpool we found the birds on the Little Calumet 

 Elver in small flocks of two to six or eight.'"' 



