The White Egrets 



63 



five colonies of water-birds were examined, and innumerable feeding-grounds 

 of Herons were visited. In all this stretch of territory — two hundred miles in 

 length— less than a dozen white Egrets were found; whereas, in the same region 

 eleven years before, the writer had found the birds plentiful, and in places 

 very abundant. 



There are two species of plume-bearing white Egrets in America. The 

 large one (Herodias egretta) is a beautiful long-legged, long-necked bird, stand- 

 ing between three and four feet in height, and the Snowy Heron (Egretta can- 



SNOWY EGRET 

 Photographed by P. B. Philipp 



didissima), of much shorter stature. From the back of the former are obtained 

 the long, straight plumes, and from the latter are taken the short, curved ones^ 

 known to the trade as the "cross aigrette." Both species are normally found 

 in the same territory and under very similar conditions. They formerly bred 

 from Oregon and New York on the north, south through Mexico and the 

 northern Central America to Patagonia and Chile. Their range, however, 

 in the United States has been greatly restricted. One small colony is reported 

 to be still in existence in eastern Oregon, and it is just possible that there are 

 one or more groups of birds in southern California. The most northern nest- 



