THE GREAT WHITE EGRET. 599 



which fill the air, are throwing soft but lambent tints of 

 rose, amber and gold on the snowy forms. They emit no 

 sound, except the occasional subdued croak of rather un- 

 musical voices, but the sight is most beautiful and suggestive. 



The nightly refXDse over, the morning finds them astir. 

 " Their rough notes are uttered more loudly than in the 

 evening, and after a very short lapse of time they spread 

 their snowy pinions, and move in different directions, to 

 search for fiddlers, fish, insects of all sorts, small quadru- 

 peds or birds, snails and reptiles, all of which form the food 

 of this species." Each flock having reached its mud-flat 

 or sand-bar, the day is spent between food and repose. 

 If it be the approach of the breeding season, their "tour- 

 nament or dress-ball " occurs. The males, with swollen 

 throats and gurgling notes, strut about the females, raising 

 their snowy plumes in the most elegant and graceful man- 

 ner. Jealous conflicts may occur, the scene of wooing last- 

 ing from the middle of the forenoon till the middle of the 

 afternoon, or from after the morning meal till that of the 

 evening. Except in the breeding season, these birds are very 

 shy and unapproachable; then, breeding in community, as is 

 the manner of their order, about the islands and the coast, 

 indeed, but more commonly about the lakes a few miles in 

 the interior, the broad, flat nest, placed on a bush or tree 

 over the water, is loosely made of sticks, and repaired from 

 year to year contains 2-4 elliptical to oval-formed, pale 

 bluish-green eggs, some 2.28x1-50. Wintering from the 

 Carolinas southward, but neverwandering far from the sea- 

 coast, this species migrates regularly as far north as New 

 Jersey, and has been found as a straggler even in New 

 Brunswick. 



How can we conceive of anything more chaste and ele- 

 gant than the Little White Egret, or Snowy Heron {Ardea 



