SNOWY EGRET. 45 



Henderson, Jamaica, June 25, 1890 (Field) ; Lake Okechobee, Fla., 

 February 4, 1896 (Stone) ; Gainesville, Fla., June 14, 1893 (speci- 

 mens in U. S. National Museum) ; near Charleston, S. C, April 7, 

 1910 (Wayne) ; Brownsville, Tex., young half grown May 15, 1877 

 (Sennett) ; eggs near Corpus Christi, Tex., April 4, 1882 (specimens 

 in U. S. National Museum) ; Camp Harney, Oreg., April 16, 1877 

 (Bendire). 



Fall migration. — The northward migration after the close of the 

 breeding season begins in early July, and by the middle of the month 

 the young birds are far north of the home of their birth. These 

 wanderings last for a month to six weeks, and by late August or early 

 September most of the birds have returned to the winter home. Oc- 

 casionally a few birds remain in the north much later: Stockton, 

 Cal., December 7, 1878 (Belding) ; near Richmond, Me., August 20, 

 1896 (Knight) ; Nantucket, Mass., September 20, 1890 (Mackay) ; 

 Ipswich, Mass., November 22, 1892 (Vickary) ; Orleans County, 

 N. Y., November 28, 1883 (Davison) ; Marcy, N. Y., November 10, 

 1889 (Ealph and Bagg) ; Jamaica Bay, N. Y., October 1, 1897 (Brais- 

 lin) ; Ocean City, Md., September 23, 1894 (Taylor) ; and St. Louis, 

 Mo., September 2, 1896 (Widmann). 



Snowy Egret. Egretta candidissima (Gruelin). 



Range. — The Western Hemisphere from Chile and Argentina north 

 to the Gulf States and Mexico; has wandered north to Nova Scotia, 

 Ontario, and British Columbia. 



Breeding range. — The snowy egret is another plume bird which, 

 like the larger egret, has been sadly diminished in numbers by the 

 demands of fashion for the beautiful aigrettes that are carried during 

 the breeding season. In fact, the snowy egret has suffered a severer 

 persecution than any other heron and has been practically extermi- 

 nated over large areas where once it was common. Formerly this 

 species had a wide distribution, breeding abundantly in the Gulf 

 States and commonly along the Atlantic to Charleston, S. C. (Wayne) . 

 Smaller colonies occurred on the coast of North Carolina and Vir- 

 ginia, and a large colony near Cape May, N. J., marked the northern 

 limit of the breeding range. This last colony was visited by Wilson 

 in 1812 and found to cover an extensive area. It was still well 

 populated in 1886, but in 1888 only one pair remained, and the ex- 

 planation was: "They have been almost exterminated, though for- 

 merly very abundant, one ornithologist having recently shot 73 birds 

 in one day" (Parker). 



Though abundant as a breeder near the mouth of the Mississippi, 

 the snowy egret seems never to have nested in large colonies far 

 back from the coast. In Audubon's time the bird was fairly common 

 north to Memphis, Tenn., but only a few have nested to the north- 

 ward, and their northern limit seems to have been reached in Knox 



