THE HERONS 



(Family Ardeidae) 



BY A. A. ALLEN, PH. D. 



ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF ORNITHOLOGY, CORNELL UNIVERSITY 



WHEN nature evolved the herons to enliven the 

 shore, she did not take into account the avarice 

 of man nor the vanity of woman. She created 

 birds that should have stood for all time as the emblem 

 of grace. Take away life and there remains an un- 

 gainly mass of spindly legs and crooked neck worthless 

 even for food. Nature might have expected, therefore, 

 that the herons would be allowed to live and delight the 

 eyes of man- 

 kind forever. 

 Unfortunately, 

 however, she 

 decorated cer- 

 tain of them 

 during the 

 breeding sea- 

 son with most 

 beautiful and 

 delicate plumes 

 which retain 

 their beauty 

 even when rip- 

 ped from the 

 backs of their 

 owners- Shrewd 

 milliners, tak- 

 ing advantage 

 of the vanity 

 of women and 

 the relentless- 

 ness of fashion, 

 saw in these 

 plumes great 

 fortunes. Fash- 

 ion and ignor- 

 ance did the 

 rest, so that to- 

 day the most 

 beautiful spe- 

 cies, the egrets, 

 are nearly ex- 

 tinct. Indeed 

 they might 

 long since have 



been so had it not been for the determination of a group 

 of bird lovers, who formed the National Association of 

 Audubon Societies, and for the far-sightedness of a 

 nature-loving President, Theodore Roosevelt, who set 

 aside certain areas of waste land as Federal Bird Reser- 

 vations to give the vanishing birds a last resort of safety. 

 There are about ioo species of herons in the world, 

 found mostly in tropical and subtropical regions, but at 

 least a dozen are found in the United States and Canada. 



Photograph by O, E. Baynard 



WHERE AIGRETTES COME FROM 



They are worn on the back of the beautiful agret herons during the nesting season. Egret at nest at 

 Orange Lake (Florida) Rookery, an island bought and guarded by the National Association of Audubon 

 Societies. 



They vary in size from the least bittern whose body is 

 not much larger than a robin's to the great blue heron 

 that stands about four feet in height. In color they vary 

 from the streaked brown plumage of the bitterns, through 

 various shades of chestnut, blue and gray, to the snowy 

 white of the egrets. They are variously ornamented with 

 elongate feathers, either on the crown, foreneck, or as 

 in the egrets, on the middle of the back. In the bittern 



there are some 

 fluffy white 

 f e a t h ers be- 

 neath the wings 

 that are dis- 

 played during 

 the courtship 

 performances. 



The majority 

 of herons are 

 g r eg a r i ous 

 birds, roosting 

 and nesting in 

 colonies. They 

 scatter when 

 fishing, how- 

 ever, and hunt 

 singly, e i t h er 

 stalking quiet- 

 ly through the 

 shallow water 

 or resting mo- 

 tionless on the 

 shore waiting 

 for some hap- 

 less fish to 

 swim within 

 reach of their 

 j a ve 1 i n-like 

 bills. One spe- 

 cies, however, 

 the reddish 

 egret, is said to 

 run rapidly 

 through the 

 shallow water 

 in pursuit of small fish. Most herons nest in the trees 

 or large bushes of extensive swamps but the bitterns 

 nest on the ground in treeless marshes. Herons' nests 

 are always poorly made structures of sticks, so thin that 

 the pale bluish or greenish white eggs can usually be seen 

 from below. 



Young herons are covered with long shaggy down 

 when hatched and even before they acquire their real 

 feathers, they are able to climb from the nest and cling 



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