1911 J General Notes. 483 



appearance as he stood up " straight as a major " in the huckleberry- 

 bushes on the hot sunny hillside. He was quite fearless and soon flew 

 down to resume feeding in the ditch of a near-by cranberry bog. 



On July 22 Mr. F. D. Lyon of Halifax saw at a pond-bottom in his 

 town another Egret which, like the three birds already noted, was plumeless. 



Thus within 10 days four Egrets were noted in Plymouth County, at 

 points rather widely separated, the North River being over 25 miles from 

 the South Plymouth pond and over 12 miles from the Halifax pond-bottom, 

 while this latter point is over 20 miles from the south Plymouth locality. 

 Halifax lies eight miles inland; the South Plymouth pond is within two or 

 three miles of the sea. 



I am informed on good authority that an Egret was seen about 10 years 

 ago at North River. Mr. Thomas W. Graves of Plymouth tells me that 

 he also saw an Egret at Yarmouth on Cape Cod a number of years ago. 

 This bird had the plumes. — J. A. Farley, Plymouth, Mass. 



The Egret at Marshfield, Massachusetts.— The town of Marshfield 

 is situated about thirty miles southeast of Boston bordering on Massa- 

 chusetts Bay. There is a considerable stretch of salt marshes with a 

 number of small ponds or pools scattered here and there. It is an ideal 

 place for water birds. 



On July 30, 1911, in company with Mr. Joseph A. Hagar of Marshfield 

 and Mr. Harold D. Mitchell of Newtonville, I observed a pair of Egrets 

 (Herodias egretta) feeding in one of the numerous pools on the marshes 

 at Marshfield. We first saw them from a hill about three-quarters of a 

 mile away. Under the cover of bushes and stone-walls we approached 

 to within about four hundred feet, then, at times crawling flat on our 

 stomachs, Mr. Hagar and I gained the shelter of a blind, not over two 

 hundred feet awa.v from the birds. 



With the Egrets was a Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias herodias) which 

 remained perfectly motionless on the bank, while the others were nervously 

 moving about. Comparing them with the Blue Heron, they appeared 

 to be rather smaller; in form similar, but more slender, especially the neck. 

 The entire plumage was pure white, the bill bright yellow, and the legs 

 and feet black. When they saw that they were observed they became very 

 restless and shy and kept walking up and down the bank with quick, 

 graceful steps. One was always on watch while the other was preening 

 its plumage or catching fish. Several times they ran quickly towards each 

 other and with outstretched wings, and in a rather ludicrous manner, 

 bobbed, bowed and touched their bills together. At this time we thought 

 that we saw two or three " aigrette " plumes on the back of one of the 

 Egrets, but of this we were not certain. They were altogether silent while 

 we were near. 



Their movements and flight were more graceful and agile than those of 

 the Blue Heron and their snow-white plumage showed up very plainly 



