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Mr. Hubert D. Astley,



THE LESSER EGRET.


Ardea garzetta.


By Hubert D. Astley, F.Z.S., M.B.O.U., etc.


The beautiful little Egret is being cruelly and disastrously

reduced in numbers, owing to the plume trade. In Europe it inhabits

only the southern countries, but ranges far south in Africa, and right

across the continent of Asia, and from thence down to the Malay

Archipelago and Australia. It has occurred as a rare straggler in

Great Britain, North Germany, and Holland, etc.


It is essentially a marsh bird, preferring swampy ground

where there is plenty of aquatic vegetation, and its nesting places

are often situated in the midst of vast swamps.


In “ Wild Life,” Yol. I., No. 1 (an extremely attractive

monthly illustrated magazine, and from which I took hints for the

accompanying drawing of the Egrets) there is a most interesting

account written by Mr. W. Farren of his experiences amongst a

nesting colony of these birds in Southern Spain.


I cannot do better than quote some of his description :—“ In

“ the nesting season they congregate in large colonies. The sites for

“ such colonies, which are occupied year after year, are generally in

“ well-wooded marshland, or shallow lagoons fringed with bushes and

“ small trees. On these bushes and trees the nests are massed

“ thickly together, and, when the eggs have been laid, and the young

“ones hatched, the parental instinct becomes dominant, and the

“ birds lose much of their shyness.” .... “The ‘ Heronies ’ of the

“ Little Egret afford, under normal conditions, one of the most

“exquisite spectacles of bird-life conceivable. The graceful outlines

“ of the parent birds, now flashing white against the cloudless blue,

“ now settling on the olive-tinted branches, now mirrored from the

“ water as they fish—colour and movement, life and sound are here.”


“ Then come the hunters—and silence ! ”


“ But for one cry—the cheeping of the slowly starving nest-

“ lings. Round them lie mutilated bodies, some—so it has been said

“ by eye-witnesses—still throbbing with faint life. For it is only a

“ small patch of skin tohich is marketable.”


“ Fifty or sixty years ago Florida could boast of a number of

“ nesting colonies, each consisting of thousands of Egrets. Season



