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GREAT AMERICAN EGRET. 



Ardea Egretta, Gmel. 



PLATE CCCLXXXVI. Male. 



In the third volume of this work, I have ah-eady intimated that the 

 truly elegant Heron which now comes to be described, is a constant 

 resident in the Floridas, that it migrates eastward sometimes as far as 

 the State of Massachusetts, and up the Mississippi to the city of 

 Natchez, and, lastly, that it is never seen far inland, by which I mean 

 that its rambles into the interior seldom extend to more than fifty miles 

 from the sea-shore, unless along the course of our great rivers. I have 

 now to add that on my way to the Texas, in the spring of 1837, 1 found 

 these bu'ds in several places along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, 

 and on several of the islands scattered around that named Galveston, 

 where, as well as in the Floridas, I was told that they spend the winter. 

 The Great American Egret breeds along the shores of the Gulf of 

 Mexico, and our Atlantic States, from Galveston Island in the Texas to 

 the borders of the State of New York, beyond which, although stragglers 

 have been seen, none, in so far as I can ascertain, have been known to 

 breed. In all low districts that are marshy and covered with large 

 trees, on the margins of ponds or lakes, the sides of bayous, or 

 gloomy swamps covered with water, are the places to which it gene- 

 rally resorts during the period of reproduction ; although I have in a 

 few instances met with their nests on low trees, and on sandy islands 

 at a short distance from the main land. As early as December I have ob- 

 served vast numbers congregated, as if for the pm-pose of making choice 

 of partners, when the addresses of the males were paid in a very curi- 

 ous and to me interesting manner. Near the plantation of John Bulow, 

 Esq. in East Florida, I had the pleasure of witnessing this sort of tourna- 

 ment or dress-ball from a place of concealment not more than a hun- 

 dred yards distant. The males, in strutting roimd the females, swelled 

 their throats, as Cormorants do at times, emitted gurgling sounds, 

 and raising their long plmnes almost erect, paced majestically before 

 the fair ones of their choice. Although these snowy beaux were a good 

 deal irritated by jealousy, and conflicts now and then took place, the 



