84 WADING BIRDS. 



AMERICAN EGRET. 



Ardea egretta. 



Char. Plumage white ; no crest ; long silky plume-feathers, from the 

 back, fall over the wings' and tail ; bill yellow ; legs and feet black. 

 Length about 38 inches. 



Nest. With a community amid a swamp or on the border of a lake ; 

 placed on a high branch of a cypress or mangrove tree, sometimes on a 

 low bush close to the water ; made of twigs. 



Eggs. 2-5 ; bluish green ; size variable, average 2.30 X 150. 



This tall and elegant Heron is in America chiefly confined 

 to the warmer and more temperate regions. From Guiana, 

 and even far beyond the equator in South America, it is seen 

 to reside as far to the north as the State of New York. In the 

 old continent the very nearly allied A. alba is met with on 

 the borders of the Caspian and Black Seas, on the shores of 

 the Irtish and the lakes of Tartary, even as far as the 53d 

 parallel ; and a straggler is now and then met with in Great 

 Britain. Towards the close of February our species is seen 

 to arrive in Georgia from its warmer hibernal resorts. At all 

 times it appears to have a predilection for swamps, rice-fields, 

 and the low, marshy shores of rivers and lagoons, where from 

 its size and color it becomes conspicuous at a distance, yet 

 from its vigilance and timidity rarely allows of an approach 

 within gunshot. It is known to breed in several of the 

 great cedar-swamps in the lower maritime parts of New 

 Jersey. Like most of the tribe, it associates in numbers at 

 the eyries, and the structure and materials of the nest are 

 entirely similar to those of the Snowy Heron. The eggs, 

 about four, are of a pale blue color. In July and August, the 

 young are seen abroad in the neighboring meadows and 

 marshes in flocks of twenty or thirty together. It is par- 

 ticularly frequent in the large and deep tide ditches in the 

 vicinity of Philadelphia. Its food, as usual, consists of frogs, 

 small fish, lizards, mice, and moles, insects, small water-snakes, 

 and at times the seeds of the pond-lilies. 



