The American Egret 



General Range. — Temperate and tropical America. Breeds in Oregon and 

 California, and from North Carolina and the Gulf States south to Argentina. Winters 

 from California and the Gulf States southward. Formerly bred north to New Jersey 

 and even Wisconsin, and has occurred north to Canadian Provinces. 



Distribution in California. — Breeds sparingly in the San Joaquin Valley and 

 at Clear Lake. Formerly abundant and breeding in other large lakes of northeastern 

 section. Now scarce and of irregular occurrence irrespective of season anywhere save 

 in northeastern plateau, where found only in summer. Winters in some numbers 

 in valley of the Colorado River, and is probably increasing in numbers. 



Authorities. — Gambel (Ardea occidentalis) , Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., ser. 2, 

 i., 1849, p. 222 (Calif.); Cooke, U. S. Dept. Agric, Biol. Surv. Circular no. 84, 191 1, p. I, 

 map (distribution); ibid., U. S. Dept. Agric, Biol. Surv. Bull., no. 45, 1913, p. 40, map 

 (distr. and migr.); Willett, Pac. Coast Avifauna, no. 7, 1912, p. 30 (status in s. Calif.); 

 Mailliard, Condor, vol. xiv., 1912, p. 74 (San Joaquin Valley; recent abundance). 



CASMERODIAS EGRETTA, the American Beauty, virgin daugh- 

 ter of the wilderness, and Queen of the South, has been freed at last 

 from her persecutors. This hunted wild thing, whose image few of us 

 had seen, and whose name had almost become a memory, is at liberty 

 now to put on her bridal array of dazzling linen and snowy plumes. 

 She may grace our horizon upon her migratory passages, or she may 

 light up our swamps when she deigns to pause for rest and amphibian 

 refreshment. There is none left to molest or to make her afraid. 



The story of the sacrifice of this magnificent bird upon the altar of 

 fashion, and of her subsequent redemption by the hand of the American 

 Association of Audubon Societies, has been often told. The slaughter 

 of the egrets at the behest of Parisian feather merchants was the most 

 tragic episode in American ornithological history. The rescue, effected 

 by the aroused sentiments of pity and indignation, crystallizing at last 

 in the enactment of the Lacy Act, and the ratification (August 16, 1916) 

 and final approval (July 3, 191 8) of the Federal migratory-bird treaty, 

 was also the most sensational and gratifying. The campaign of educa- 

 tion which was carried on for fifteen years, and which brought about 

 this splendid result, may be likened to those which abolished slavery 

 and, more recently, liquor. It was a people's movement which would 

 not be denied. Of course making and enforcing laws are not exactly 

 synonymous. A villain named Cuthbert is said to have cleaned up 

 thirty-five hundred dollars as the result of three days' successful law- 

 breaking in a Florida swamp. But the Government means business 

 today, and the last "blind piggers" of featherdom are being cleaned out. 

 Two quotations from a late report of the Chief of Bureau of Biological 

 Survey (June 30, 1919) are apropos: 



"The treaty act and the regulations thereunder make it unlawful 

 to possess, purchase, sell, or transport aigrettes or the skins of any migra- 



1897 



