414 REDDISH EGRET. 



which it is impossible for me to describe. It is curious to see a party of 

 twenty or thirty on a sand-bar, presenting as they do a mixture of colours 

 from pure white to the full hues of the old birds of either sex ; and still 

 more curious perhaps it is to see a purple male paying his addresses to a 

 white female, while at hand a white male is caressing a purple female, and 

 not far off are a pair of white, and another of purple birds. Nay, reader, 

 until I had witnessed these remarkable circumstances, I felt some distrust 

 respecting the statement of the worthy pilot. I am even now doubtful 

 if all the young breed the first spring after their birth, and am more in- 

 clined to think that they do not, on account of the large flocks of white 

 birds of this species which during the breeding time kept apart from those 

 that had nests, but which on examination were not found to be barren 

 birds, although they had the crests and pendent feathers less elongated 

 than those white individuals that were actually breeding. 



By the middle of April, they construct their nests, which they place 

 for the most part on the south-western sides of the mangroves immediately 

 bordering the keys, never on the trees at a distance from the water, and 

 rarely very close together. Some are placed on the top branches, others 

 a foot or two above the highest tide-mark ; many of them are annually 

 repaired, perhaps all that stand the winter gales. The nest, which is quite 

 flat, is large for the size of the birdj and is formed of dry sticks, inter- 

 spersed with grass and leaves. The eggs are three, average an inch and 

 three quarters in length, one and three-eighths in breadth, have an elliptical 

 form, and a smooth shell, of a uniform rather pale sea-green colour. They 

 afford excellent eating. Both sexes incubate, but I did not ascertain the 

 time required for hatching. 



The young while yet naked are of a dark colour, there being only a 

 few scanty tufts of long soft down on the head and other parts ; but 

 when the feathers begin to sprout they became white. Being abundantly 

 and carefully fed, at first by regurgitation, they grow fast, and soon be- 

 come noisy. When about a month old, they are fed less frequently, and 

 the fish is merely dropt before them, or into their open throats ; soon af- 

 ter they sit upright on the nest, with their legs extended forward, or 

 crawl about on the branches, as all other Herons are wont to do. They 

 are now sensible of danger, and when a boat is heard coming towards them 

 they hide among the branches, making towards the interior of the keys, 

 where it is extremely difficult to follow them. On one occasion, when I 

 was desirous of procuring some of them alive, to take to Charleston, it 



