98 ARDEID.E. 



316. ARDEA EGRETTA (Gm.). 

 (WHITE EGRET.) 



Ardea egretta, Scl. et Salv. Nomencl. p. 125 ; Durnford, Ibis, 1877, p. 189 (Buenos 

 Ayres), et 1878, p. 399 (Centr. Patagonia) ; Gibson, Ibis, 1880, p. 156 (Buenos 

 Apes) ; White, P. Z. S. 1882, p. 624 (Salta) ; Barroivs, Auk, 1884, p. 271 

 (Entrerios, Pampas). Ardea leuce, Burm. Syst. Ueb. iii. p. 416 ; id. La- 

 Plata Reise, ii. p. 509. Herodias egretta, Baird, Bretc., et Eidgw. Watei*- 

 B.N.A. i. p. 23. 



Description. White above and beneath ; bill yellow ; legs black ; head not 

 crested ; side-plumes lengthened and decomposed : whole length 35'0 inches, 

 wing 15-0, tail 6-0. Female similar, but rather smaller. 



Hab. North and South America. 



The White Egret inhabits America from Nova Scotia to Patagonia, 

 and is everywhere common, so that its breeding and other habits are 

 very well known. On the pampas, owing to the absence of forests, its 

 nesting-habits have been modified, for there it makes its nest amongst 

 the reeds ; as do also other species which elsewhere in America, North 

 and South, build on trees. The following interesting account of a 

 heronry on the pampas is from a paper by^Mr. Gibson : 



" In November of 1873 I found a large breeding-colony of Ardea 

 egretta, A. candidissima, and Nycticorax obscurus in the heart of a 

 lonely swamp. The rushes were thick, but had been broken down by 

 the birds in a patch some fifty yards in diameter. There were from 

 300 to 400 nests, as well as I could judge ; of these three fourths were of 

 A. egretta, and the remainder, with the exception of two or three dozen of 

 N. obscurus, belonged to A. candidissima. Those of the first-mentioned 

 species were slight platforms, placed on the tops of broken rushes, at a 

 height of from two to three feet above the water, and barely a yard apart. 

 " The nests of A. candidissima were built up from the water to the 

 height of a foot or a foot and a half, with a hollow on the top for the 

 eggs ; they were very compactly put together, of small dry twigs of a 

 water-plant. A good many were distributed amongst those of A. egretta ; 

 but the majority were close together, at one side of the colony, where 

 the reeds were taller and less broken. 



" The nests of N. obscurus much resembled the latter in construction 

 and material ; but very few were interspersed amongst those of the 

 other two species, being retired to the side opposite A. candidissima, on 

 the borders of some channels of clear water ; there they were placed 

 amongst the high reeds, and a few yards apart from each other. 



'' The larger Egrets remained standing on their nests till I was 

 within twenty yards of them, and alighted again when I had passed. In 

 this position they looked much larger than when flying. The smaller 



