BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
59 
processes. On land our heron has also his fare, as he is no less a suc- 
cessful ang-ler than a mouser, and renders an important service to the 
farmer in the destruction he makes among- most of the reptiles and 
meadow shrews. Grasshoppers, other larg-e insects, and particularly 
drag-on-flies, he is very expert in striking, and occasionally feeds upon 
the seeds of pond lilies, contiguous to his usual haunts. Our species, 
in all probability, as well as the European Heron, at times preys upon 
the young birds which may be accidentally straggling near their soli- 
tary retreats.” 
In the months of March and April, 1885, I examined the stomachs of 
twenty-three of these birds which had been killed by plume-hunters in 
Orange and Volusia counties, Florida. Twelve birds had fed entirely 
on flsh; three had taken flsh and cray-fish; two, small snakes ; one, 
frogs and fish; one, fish and a few feathers; one, traces of beetles. 
Three birds were destitute of all food materials. 
From my investigations made in Florida, as well as the records in 
the following table, I would say this heron is mainly piscivorous in 
habit : 
No. 
Date. 
Locality. 
Food-Matekials. 
1 
June 3, 1879 
Brigantine. N. J 
Remains of flsh. 
2 
Aug. 23, 1879 
Chester county. Pa 
Remains of flsh. 
3 
June 7, 1880 
Delaware county. Pa 
Remains of flsh. 
4 
June 12. 1880 
Berks county. Pa 
Remains of flsh. 
5 
May 15, 1880 
Chester county. Pa. 
Remains of flsh. 
() 
Sept. — , 1882 
Brigantine, N. J 
Remains of flsh. 
7 
Oct. 24. 1883 
Delaware county. Pa 
Remains of flsh. 
8 
April 20, 1884 
Delaware county. Pa 
Remains of flsh. 
9 
Aug. — , 1884 
Willistown, Pa 
Remains of flsh. 
10 
Aug. — , 1884, 
Willistown, Pa 
Remains of flsh. 
Ardea egretta Gmel. 
American Egret ; Liarge White Crane. 
Description. 
The plumage of this bird is entirely white ; in the breeding season the adults have 
the backs ornamented with long hair-like plumes, frequently so long that they 
touch the ground when the bird stands erect ; legs and feet black ; eyes bright yel- 
low ; bill yellow, and about five inches long ; point of upper mandible black ; meas- 
ures, from tip to tip of wings, about five feet. 
Habitat . — Temperate and tropical America, from New Jersey, Minnesota and 
Oregon south to Patagonia ; casually on the Atlantic coast to Nova Scotia. 
This beautiful bird, now chiefly found in the southern states, where 
it is rapidly being exterminated by the heartless and money-loving 
plume-hunters, is a rather rare and irregular migrant in Pennsylvania. 
It occurs in this state, generally, only in the late summer and autumn, 
when straggling individuals are seen in suitable locations, in almost 
every quarter of the commonwealth. In former years, this species is 
said to have reared its young in Pennsylvania. The stomach contents 
of thirteen of these egrets, which I have examined, are here given * 
