4 DISTRIBUTION OF THE AMERICAN EGRETS. 



SNOWY EGRET. (Egrctta caruUdissima.) 



This smaller white heron is even more beautiful than its larger 

 relative, for during the breeding season, in addition to the long dorsal 

 plumes, it is adorned with beautiful plumes on both head and neck. 

 On account of its superb nuptial plumage the snowy heron has been 

 the most sought of plume birds, with a correspondingly marked 

 diminution in its numbers. Formerly it ranged from southern 

 Canada to Chile and Argentina ; now it is almost extinct on the 

 whole Pacific coast, and so greatly reduced in the Mississippi Valley 

 and on the Atlantic coast that only the most rigorous enforcement of 

 protective laws can prevent its total extinction. 



Like most herons it breeds in colonies and hence falls an easy prey 

 to the plume hunter. The colonies were largest and most numerous 

 in the Gulf States from Texas to Florida, but the bird was not rare 

 as a breeder in the Mississippi Valley as far north as southern In- 

 diana and on the Atlantic coast as far north as southern New Jersey. 

 The great swamps of the lower Ohio, with their abundance of proper 

 food and enormous trees suitable for nesting sites, are admirably 

 adapted to the needs of the birds and would undoubtedly be again 

 occupied by this strikingly handsome species under a proper system 

 of protection. There are comparatively few natural enemies of the 

 birds in this section, and if they were relieved from the attacks of 

 human persecutors the annual increase in numbers would be rapid. 



The great colonies were killed off between 1880 and 1888 ; since then 

 the bird has been very rare north of the Gulf States. A very ex- 

 tensive series of rookeries was located formerly in southern New 

 Jersey and the birds were still abundant in 1872. The last of these 

 colonies were destroyed in 1886 and 1887, one man killing 73 birds in 

 one day. In recent years one bird was observed near Camden, July 

 16, 1904. The nesting of a single pair at Sayville, Long Island, in 

 1885, is the latest breeding record north of New Jersey; the latest 

 breeding records in the upper Mississippi Valley are 1800 in Knox 

 County, Ind., and 1895 at Lincoln, Nebr. Some of the latest records 

 in the northern part of the bird's range are : Saratoga County, N. Y., 

 1893; St. Albans, Vt., October, 1890: Billings, Mo., August, 1895; 

 Odin, 111., August 7, 1895; Cleveland. Ohio. August 25, 1889: Dunn- 

 ville, Ontario, Ma}^ 18, 1884; and Lake Koshkonong, T\ T is., August, 

 1886. 



