54 THE CHICAGO ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



ferring deep woods and the tallest trees. They often place as 

 many as ten nests in one tree. A few pairs nest between Long 

 Lake and Lake Michigan in Indiana. Mr. B. T. Gault found a 

 colony of these birds nesting at Wheeling on the Desplaines 

 River, April 29, 1889. (See plate VI.) The herons arrive in 

 March and are quite shy until after the breeding season, when a 

 few pairs, or a single bird, may be seen about the small lakes 

 and rivers of our area. The majority of the herons depart on 

 their southward journey about the last of September. 



The range of the Great Blue Heron covers the whole of 

 North America from Hudson Bay and the Fur Countries south 

 through Central America into northern South America. 



Genus HERODIAS Boie, 1822. 



Herodias egretta (Gmelin). American Egret. 

 Ardea egretta GMELIN, S. N., I, ii, 1788, 620. 

 Herodias egretta GRAY, Gen. B., Ill, 1849. 



Herodias alia var. egretta RIDGWAY, Ann. Lye. N. Y., 1874, 386. 

 Popular synonyms: GREAT WHITE HERON. WHITE CRANE. SNOWY 

 HERON. GHOST BIRD. GREAT EGRET. 



The American Egret is either a visitant or a summer resident 

 in nearly every portion of Illinois. Within our limits it is a 

 casual fall visitant. It may have bred here years ago before 

 the region became so largely settled. Mr. J. Grafton Parker, Jr., 

 informs me that he shot a pair of this species July 27, 1885, in 

 Woodlawn, Chicago, on the site of the newer portion of Jackson 

 Park. In 1889 I saw some of these birds at Grand Crossing, 

 Chicago, and I have taken them at Liverpool, Indiana. In May, 

 1895, Mr. Charles Eldredge collected the American Egret and 

 its eggs iri the heronies at Kouts, Indiana. He found the birds 

 nesting in the same trees with the Great Blue Heron (Ardea 

 herodias). It is said to be abundant all through the summer on 

 the Illinois River below Peoria. 



The range of the American Egret is extensive, covering the 

 whole of temperate and tropical America from Nova Scotia, 

 Ontario, Minnesota and Oregon to Patagonia. It is also found in 

 the West Indies. 



Genus EGRETTA Forster, 1817. 



Egretta candidissima (Gmelin). Snowy Heron. 



Ardea candidissima GMELIN, S. N., I, pt. ii, 1788. 633, No. 45. 

 Egretta candidissima GOSSE, Birds Jamaica, 1847, 336. 



