HERONS, EGRETS, AND BITTERNS: Family Ardeidae [ 109 ] 



quently reported one or two birds seen usually in October or November, 

 although he reported two on June 8, 1913. Jewett saw a single bird at 

 Agency Lake, October 7, 1932.. On May 30, 1934, H. M. Worcester, then 

 warden on Upper Klamath Lake Reservation, and the writers found at 

 least three pairs of American Egrets in the Blue Heron and Farallon Cor- 

 morant colony on that refuge. High water prevented entry into the 

 willows, but from their actions we were certain the birds were nesting. 

 Later Worcester returned and found several nests, the first known with 

 certainty in the Klamath basin. 



Henshaw (1880) reported this egret as a common breeding species at 

 the Warner Lakes, but no nesting colony has been known there for many 

 years, the only recent record being a single bird reported by M. E. Jacobs, 

 May 2.5, 192.5, as staying several days on a small lake at the Guano Ranch. 

 This ranch lies east of the Warner Lakes near the south end of Hart 

 Mountain. 



Our only record for western Oregon is of a single bird, first reported 

 by local residents to W. A. Eliot as a "white crane," staying on the river 

 bottoms near the Swan Island airport in Portland. The two writers upon 

 hearing of it immediately visited the place (September n, 1933), in 

 company with C. A. Leichhardt, and found a single egret that remained 

 several days. 



We have had no Oregon stomachs to examine, but in general the food 

 consists of small aquatic forms, with seldom any fish of food value in- 

 cluded. Baynard (1911), who forced 50 young egrets in Florida to dis- 

 gorge their meals immediately after they had eaten, found the items of 

 the 50 meals to total as follows: "2.97 small frogs, 49 small snakes, 

 mostly the water moccasin, 61 young fish, suckers, not edible, 176 cray- 

 fish." 



Brewster's Egret: 



Egretta thula brewsteri Thayer and Bangs 



DESCRIPTION. "Plumage always pure white. Adults in nuptial plumage: scapulars 

 with long plumes of dissected filamentose feathers reaching beyond tail and recurved 

 at tip; head and throat crested; feet yellow, legs black; bill black, with yellow base. 

 Post-breeding plumage and young: back without plumes." (Bailey) Si^e: Wing 10.46- 

 10.79, culmen -^.^L-^.-'L, tarsus 4.05-4.43. Nest: Either a loose platform of sticks in 

 a tree or, more commonly in the West, tule stems supported by a mass of bent-over 

 and broken-down tules. Eggs: 3 to 6, usually 4 or 5, pale green. 

 DISTRIBUTION. General: Breeds from Utah, Nevada, and California south to Lower 

 California. Wanders north to British Columbia and Alberta after breeding season. 

 In Oregon: Formerly bred in Harney County. 



BREWSTER'S EGRET, a dainty little snow white bird, with blacklegs and 

 yellow feet, can now be considered only as a rare straggler in Oregon. 

 Bendire (1877) recorded the "Great White Egret" as: "a moderately com- 



