48 NORTH AMERICAN HERONS AND THEIR ALLIES. 



It will be noticed that many of these are spring records, and they 

 differ from those of the larger egret in representing the wandering 

 of adult birds rather than of newly fledged young. The same thing 

 is shown still more strongly by the Colorado records. More than 50 

 instances of the occurrence of the bird in the State are on record, 

 showing that it is a regular visitant, and nearly half are in the 

 spring — earliest April 15, 1906, near Nucla (Warren) — and the re- 

 mainder at intervals through the season to October 4, 1897, the latest 

 at Pueblo (Doertenbach). Yet the bird is not known to nest in Col- 

 orado and probably does not breed anywhere within 500 miles of the 

 State. The same conditions occur in California, where at Stockton 

 the bird was found common in 1878 from March 6 to November 20 

 (Belding); yet did not nest. Thus it seems that in the case of the 

 snowy egret many adult birds went north at the time of the spring 

 migration far beyond the regular breeding range of the species and 

 spent the summer there as nonbreeders. This species is an exception 

 to the general rule that "all birds breed at the northern limit of 

 their range." This remaining of nonbreeders throughout the sum- 

 mer north of their breeding range is just the opposite of what hap- 

 pens among the shore birds, many of which remain as nonbreeders 

 all summer far south of the breeding range. 



The snowy egret produces plumes selling for more than their 

 weight in gold, and consequently the birds have been persistently 

 persecuted until in the United States they have reached the verge of 

 extinction. A few small colonies still remain, however, to serve as 

 centers of distribution now that better laws and a better public sen- 

 timent in favor of bird protection bid fair to allow this beautiful 

 species a chance to reoccupy its former range. Within late years the 

 birds have been known to breed in Florida, near Cape Sable, in 1903 

 (Bent) ; Charleston, S. C. 1910 (Wayne) ; on the Audubon bird res- 

 ervation at the mouth of the Mississippi River. La.. 1908 (Kopman) ; 

 the species probably nested in 1909 near Beaufort, N. C., where 

 they were seen June '23 (Bowdish) : and a few nested in 1911 near 

 Orton. Brunswick County, N. C. (Brimley). The largest colony 

 now existing in the United States is on the great bird refuge of 

 Avery Island, La., where in 1910 it was estimated that fully 2,000 

 pairs were nesting (Ward). Some other late records of migrants or 

 wanderers have been made near Deming. X. Mex.. November 5, 1906 

 (Munson); Sapillo Creek. X. Mex., October 21, 1908 (Bergtold) ; 

 Delair, X. J.. July 16, 1904 (Miller) ; and San Quintin Bay, Lower 

 California, April, 1910 (Howell). 



Winter range. — The snowy egret remained throughout the winter 

 in full numbers in southern Florida, but from central Florida north- 

 ward most of the birds retired during the cold season. A few were 

 found in winter at Anclote Keys, Fla. (Scott): Gainesville, Fla. 



