84 
WADING BIRDS. 
AMERICAN EGRET. 
ArDEA EGRETl'A. 
Char. Plumage white ; no crest ; long silky plume-feathers, from the 
back, fall over the wings and tail ; bill yellow ; legs and feet black. 
Length about 38 inches. 
Nest. With a community amid a swamp or on the border of a lake ; 
placed on a high branch of a cypress or mangrove tree, sometimes on a 
low bush close to the water ; made of twigs. 
Eggs. 2-5 ; bluish green ; size variable, average 2.30 X i-SO' 
This tall and elegant Heron is in America chiefly confined 
to the warmer and more temperate regions. From Guiana, 
and even far beyond the ec^uator in South America, it is seen 
to reside as far to the north as the State of New York. In the 
old continent the very nearly allied A. alba is met with on 
the borders of the Caspian and Black Seas, on the shores of 
the Irtish and the lakes of Tartary, even as far as the 53d 
parallel ; and a straggler is now and then met with in Great 
Britain. Towards the close of February our species is seen 
to arrive in Georgia from its warmer hibernal resorts. At all 
times it appears to have a predilection for swamps, rice-fields, 
and the low, marshy shores of rivers and lagoons, where from 
its size and color it becomes conspicuous at a distance, yet 
from its vigilance and timidity rarely allow's of an approach 
within gunshot. It is known to breed in several of the 
great cedar-swamps in the lower maritime parts of New 
Jersey. Like most of the tribe, it associates in numbers at 
the eyries, and the structure and materials of the nest are 
entirely similar to those of the Snowy Heron. The eggs, 
about four, are of a pale blue color. In July and August, the 
young are seen abroad in the neighboring meadows and 
marshes in flocks of twenty or thirty together. It is par- 
ticularly frequent in the large and deep tide ditches in the 
vicinity of Philadelphia. Its food, as usual, consists of frogs, 
small fish, lizards, mice, and moles, insects, small water-snakes, 
and at times the seeds of the pond-lilies. 
