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Avery Island—-A Remarkable Bird Sanctuary 
By BELLE WILSON 
LAST SPRING I had a very interesting visit to Avery Island, near 
New Iberia, Louisiana. 
Avery Island has been changed from a jungle into a most beauti- 
ful flower garden where in early spring camellias and azaleas of many 
hues and varieties cast their lovely reflections into mirror-like lakes 
bordered by live oaks hung with southern moss. Wisteria vines with 
their exquisite lavender blossoms climb over shrubs and trees. Iris of 
many varieties, some with astonishingly large blooms, decorate the 
by-ways. A grove of bamboo with trunks of the trees several inches 
in diameter surprises a northerner. At the top of a man-made hill is a 
huge idol, enclosed in glass, a Buddha, and on the slope of the hill are 
planted flowers that would please a visitor from the Celestial Empire. 
Flowers, shrubs and trees from far corners of the earth decorate the 
landscape. 
I had hoped to see the thousands of egrets that annually make 
Avery Island their summer home, but the lateness of the spring pre- 
vented my seeing the hordes. I saw but a dozen or so American egrets, 
some Florida gallinules, boat-tailed grackles and a bald eagle. 
The story about Mr. McIlhenney, owner of Avery Island, bringing 
back the egrets for our enjoyment, is very interesting. Perhaps some of 
you can remember the time when women wore aigrettes, the beautiful 
breeding plumes of the egrets, in their hats. When plume hunters had 
all but exterminated these birds our Government made it a crime to 
kill even one. Mr. MclIlhenney secured, somehow, seven egrets and 
placed them in an enormous outdoor cage, built as nearly as possible 
in a location similar to that to which the birds were accustomed in 
the wild state, and furnished them with nesting material. In the fall, 
after first banding the young as well as the adult birds, he had their 
cage torn down, hoping the birds would fly away with their kind. But 
these egrets, used to being cared for, did not seem to understand what 
it was all about and returned each night to their former perches. 
Finally, everything connected with their home was removed. At last 
they seemed to comprehend that they must go, and just before cold 
weather came they joined migrating egrets and flew away to the south. 
You may imagine Mr. Mcllhenney’s joy, when, the following 
spring, his banded egrets, old and young, returned with others of their 
kind to Avery Island. Years have passed, and now thousands of these 
lovely white birds, decorated with beautiful white plumes in the 
breeding season, spend the warm months and raise their young each 
year on his preserve. They build their nests in his trees, but there 
are not enough trees of sufficient size near the water to furnish nesting 
sites and roosting places for the vast hordes that flock in at night. 
And so he has built great racks out over the water, double-decked racks 
where the egrets may nest and roost in safety. It is said that it is now 
necessary to furnish these birds with more than thirty truck loads of 
nesting material each spring. I was told the adult birds fly far away 
