678 
A YEAR WITH THE BIRDS 
Snowy Heron : Andea candidissima 
The Egret 
Kin to the Great Blue, Green, and Black-crowned Night Herons, having 
snowy white plumage, black legs, yellow feet and black-tipped 
bill. 
Length: About two feet. 
1 his bird is famous as being the “ Bonnet Martyr of the 
Milliners.” A tuft of delicate long plumes falling below the 
tail ornaments its back in the breeding season only. These 
are so prized by plume-hunters that they are torn from the 
parent birds almost before they are dead, and nestsful of 
young are left to perish miserably. 
1 hough this Heron, now fast being exterminated, is seen 
at its best in full plumage only in its native haunts, I have 
been fortunate enough to see specimens single and in pairs half 
a dozen times within a few miles of home, — in the Fairfield 
salt marshes, near Stratford, and by the Aspetuck Mill Pond. 
In no sense can this Heron, any more than the Cardinal, be 
called a Connecticut bird ; but I have recorded them here for 
an object lesson, as examples of beautiful birds that were 
being slowly exterminated through the thoughtlessness of men 
and women. 
The Cardinal only recently saved from the lingering death 
that meets the caged wild bird, — the Heron still martyred to 
trim a bonnet! 
To all healthy beings life is sweet. Children, protect the 
birds, — hands off, — live and let live ! 
