4 NOTES ON THE GREAT BLUE HERON 



At present the Great White Heron, a larger bird even 

 than the Great Blue Heron, is common on the coast of southern 

 Florida, especially in the vicinity of Cape Sable. According 

 to Chapman, the tourists who went to Florida about forty 

 years ago often observed certain parts of the country fairly 

 white with the American Egrets, so that occasionally the 

 islands glistened in the sun like banks of snow. Now, how- 

 ever, one may search for miles in their old haunts in vain, 

 possibly observing a solitary specimen in the distance which 

 notes your approach from afar and, before you are within 

 rifle shot, takes wing with a squawk of fright. The rapid 

 extermination of these beautiful birds, whose commercial 

 value lies in a few delicate plumes, is one of the saddest 

 features in the history of our native fauna. To supply the 

 demand for some article which contributes to our comfort or 

 happiness, we see species after species almost immediately 

 wiped out of existence. 



A particularly unfortunate feature of this work is found 

 in the fact that the "aigrettes" are worn by the bird only 

 during the breeding season and consequently for each adult 

 bird killed we must estimate a whole nest full of young left 

 to starve for the lack of parental care. The odors arising 

 from the decaying bodies of these young birds in the nesting 

 places have been observed many miles out at sea. 



One plume-hunter was heard to boast proudly of killing 

 three hundred Herons in a "rookery" in one afternoon and 

 another stated that he and his companions had killed 130,000 

 birds, Herons, Egrets and Terns, during one winter. 



To any fairminded person the story of the destruction of 

 these birds to satisfy human vanity is a deep stain on the 

 history of Florida. 



The Snowy Heron, the most dainty and graceful of the 

 herons, has now become the rarest, the delicate aigrettes 

 which it donned as a nuptial dress being its death warrant 

 Fashion demanded from the bird its wedding plumes and the 

 demand has been supplied. Mercilessly they were shot down 

 at their roosts or nesting grounds, the coveted feathers were 

 stripped from their backs, the carcasses left to fester in the 

 sun and the young in their nests left starving within a few 

 feet of the decaying bodies of their parents and all this in 



