84 Birds of Colorado 
11th, and incubation was somewhat advanced. They 
are oval in shape, pale greenish-blue in colour and 
measure 2°60 x 1°80 
Heronries are occasionally entirely broken up by a 
severe hailstorm. Such a disaster occurred to a colony 
near Lyons in Boulder co., in July 1907; the ground 
under the trees was covered with dead birds. 
Genus HERODIAS. 
Closely resembling Ardea, but smaller, wing 16—17; plumage 
white throughout, with a train of decomposed scapulars developed in 
the breeding season ; no occipital crest. 
One species only in North America. 
American Egret. Herodias egretta. 
A.O.U. Checklist no 196—Colorado Records—Aiken 00, p. 298; 
Cooke 97, p. 197. 
Description. Adult—Plumage entirely white ; a train of long, decom- 
posed plumes from the scapulars extending ten to twelve inches 
beyond the tail when fully developed ; no lengthened feathers on the 
head and neck ; iris and bill yellow, legs black. Length 39-5; wing 
14-75; tail 6-25; culmen 4-5; tarsus 6-5. 
The female is slightly smaller—wing 14. After the breeding season 
the long plumes are lost. Young birds have a black bill and no long 
plumes. 
Distribution.—The southern United States and the Pacific slope 
from Oregon south to Patagonia and the West Indies; a straggler 
north as far as Nova Scotia and Manitoba. 
The only notice of this species in Colorado is that of Aiken, who 
states: “‘On May 12th, 1900, Mr. A. Gruber and Mr. F. Cikanck, 
taxidermists in my employ, reported seeing a single bird in a tall cotton- 
wood tree five miles south of Colorado Springs. As they are familiar 
with this species as well as with the more common Snowy Heron, there 
appears no reason to doubt their identification.”” Hersey informs me 
he has one in his collection, taken at Barr in June, 1905. 
Genus EGRETTA, 
Resembling Herodias, but smaller, wing 9-5—11-5; plumage white 
with an occipital crest, and the dorsal train of decomposed feathers 
slightly recurved at the tips. 
Only one North American species. 
