112 BIRDS OF ONTARIO. 



alive at shooting distance, the graceful movements of the long, lithe 

 neck, with its pointed plumes, present a sight we all like to look upon. 

 In Southern Ontario, Herons are seen occasionally wherever their 

 favorite fish is to be found. Throughout the North- West, they are 

 not common, though Mr. Thompson tells of being one of a party who 

 accidentally found a heronry where it was little expected, in the 

 Poplar Woods, at the head waters of Bird's-tail Creek. 



Subgenus HERODIAS Boie. 

 ARDEA EGRETTA Gmel. 



74. American Egret. (196) 



No obviously lengthened feathers on the head at any time ; in the breeding- 

 season, back with very long plumes of decomposed feathers drooping far beyond 

 the tail ; neck, closely feathered ; plumage, entirely white at all seasons ; bill, 

 lores and eyes, yellow ; legs and feet, black. Length, 36-42 inches (not including 

 the dorsal train) ; witig, 16-17 ; bill, nearly 5; tarsus, nearly 6. 



Hae. — United States, southerly, straggling northward to Nova Scotia. 

 Massachusetts, Canada West and Minnesota. West Indies, Mexico, Central 

 and South America. i ^ 



Nest, in trees or bushes. 



Eggs, three or four, pale greenish-blue. 



This species has a wide distribution in the south, but Canada 

 seems to be its northern boundary. It is only an accidental visitor 

 here, and, strange to say, nearly all of those obtained have been 

 young birds. There is a record in the Auk, Vol. II., page 110, of a 

 pair seen at Rockcliife, on the Ottawa River, in the spring of 1883. 

 The male was obtained, and is now in the Museum of the Geological 

 Survey at Ottawa. These were adults, but the specimen in my 

 collection, which was obtained at Rond Eau, near the west end of 

 Lake Erie, and others which I have heard of along our southern 

 border, were all young birds. 



Dr. Wheaton gives the same account of those found in Ohio, and 

 Dr. Coues in his "Birds of the North-west," page 521, says: "I may 

 here observe that a certain northward migration of some southerly 

 birds at this season is nowhere more noticeable than among the 

 Herons and their allies, the migrants consisting chiefly of birds 

 hatched that year, which unaccountably stray in what seems to us to 

 be the wrong direction." 



