Water Birds 



389 



I 



Counties are without 

 any. The herons go 

 miles away in search of 

 f ood . The young herons 

 are fed by the parents 

 for three or four weeks 

 before they leave the 

 nest. 



The white egret, or 

 white heron, breeds in 

 the Southern states, but 

 in summer it is occasion- 

 ally seen farther north. 

 During the breeding 

 season it has beautiful 

 long plumes, called 

 " aigrettes," growing 

 from the back between 

 the wings. In order to obtain these feathers to adorn 

 the hats of heartless or thoughtless women, these beauti- 

 ful birds have been almost exterminated by plume 

 hunters, who slaughter the mature egrets and leave the 

 helpless young birds without parents to care for them. 

 In Florida two agents of the Audubon Society who 

 tried to protect these birds were killed by the ruthless 

 plume hunters. 



TERNS AND GULLS 



The graceful movements of terns and gulls, as they 

 pursue their course with tireless wings, delight the eye 

 of the ocean voyager as well as the visitor to large in- 

 land waters. 



U. S. Dept. of Agriculture 



FIG. 241. The Arctic tern, the world's 

 migration champion. A distance of 11,000 

 miles separates its summer from its winter 

 home. 



