Egret

“ Large, green, blue, and scarlet parrots, the araras, fly in pairs, uttering penetrating, harsh cries, and sometimes an egret with her precious snow-white plumage would keep just ahead of us with graceful wing-motion, until she chose a spot to alight among the low bushes close to the water-front. ”

“ Scattered here and there over the sweep of fringing bushes were a dozen or so more of these rickety platforms of sticks, each with its solemn group of stilt-legged staring young, motionless as statues interested in [Pg 82] nothing upon earth save the quantity of fish or frogs which their untiring parents could supply to their unassuageable appetites.
Above this outermost nest, with the four fledglings in it, hung for a moment, hovering on wide wings, the great white mother egret, with a shining orange fish in her beak. ”

“ There is an orientalism in her composition and handling of light and shade that, applied to the poetic subjects of her southern environment, produced a fascinating art. The white egret in its boudoir of sheltering palms overhanging the river is a thing of beauty, of nature, of solitude, and exquisite art. ”

“ Tony and Papita waited some time, but in vain; the father and mother egret did not come back to the nest.
"They don't come back ever, the big angel birds; but we go and look for them, Papita. You see, the little ones are so hungry; they die if we don't feed them." The children paddled up and down the swamp, searching everywhere, and finally found the old egrets—all that the plume hunters had left—just the two snowy bodies, from which the beautiful, long aigrette plumes had been roughly torn. ”

“ The train of this Egret, like that of other species, makes its appearance a few weeks previous to the love season, continues to grow and increase in beauty, until incubation has commenced, after which period it deteriorates, and at length disappears about the time when the young birds leave the nest, when, were it not for the difference in size, it would be difficult to distinguish them from their parents. ”

“ Or in passing through extensive desolate marshes, the dazzling white plumage of a stationary egret has exercised the same attraction. At night we experience the sensation in a greater degree, when the silver sheen of the moon makes a broad path on the water ”

“ The Egrets, which are probably included under the generic title of Anâphah, are birds of passage, and at the proper season 474 are plentiful in Palestine. These pretty birds much resemble the heron in general form, and in general habits both birds are very much alike, haunting the marshes and edges of lakes and streams, and feeding upon the frogs and other inhabitants of the water. In countries where rice is cultivated, the Egret may generally be seen in the artificial swamps in which that plant is sown. The colour of the Egret is pure white, with the exception of the train. ”

“ Even the snowy egret provides a little fun at times, although he doesn't mean it. He is very much in earnest, is the snowy egret, and objects, with long claws and a very sharp beak, to the earthly existence of all other living things. He has given up chasing the other birds about the inclosure, because he couldn't always catch the little ones, and sometimes the big ones caught him. ”

“ The pretty, airy plumes which we see on many hats grow on the egret's back, and fall over the sides and tail of the bird. They are most beautiful at the time when the mother bird is raising her brood of little ones. This is the time for the hunter to shoot her, and he finds it easy, because the egret will not readily fly away from her babies.
The little birds starve to death, and in many places there are no egrets left. Every feathery plume in the dainty bonnet means that at least one happy, innocent life has been taken. Do the feathers look quite so pretty to you when you think of all this? ”

“ The spring is the time when decorations are seen at their best. The snowy egret trails his filmy cloud of plumes, putting to shame the stiff millinery bunches of similar feathers torn from his murdered brethren. Even the awkward and querulous night heron exhibits a long curling plume or two. And what a strange criterion of beauty a female white pelican must have! ”

“ Almost before it has touched the ground the cane is pulled and the egret finds itself a prisoner. One of the bird-catchers immediately runs to the net, secures the victim, opens out its wings, and, holding each of these between the big and the second toe, pulls out the nuchal plumes. ”

“ White Egrets, “Ospreys,” and Ostrich-Feathers
The last bird I am going to tell you about is the White Egret. But, do you know, I am not quite sure if he is beautiful enough to be put in a book of beautiful birds, because, of course, a book of beautiful birds means a book of the most beautiful birds that there are, and I am not quite sure if the White Egret is so beautiful as all that. At any rate he is not so beautiful as the birds I have been telling you about, and there are many other birds in the world that I have not told you about, that are more beautiful than he is. ”

“ Its form is the embodiment of symmetry and grace, its plumage is immaculate, and the filmy “plumes” on its head and back are like spun glass. Its black legs and bill merely serve to intensify the whiteness of its feathers. The vanity of woman has been the curse of the Snowy Egret. Its plumes are finest during the breeding season, and it was then that the hunters sought them, slaughtering the old birds in the rookeries by thousands (when they were abundant) , and leaving the nestlings to die of starvation. ”

“ Unlike the American human species, in whom local attachment is not largely developed, and who take a new house every moving day, the egret repairs and fixes over the old house year after year, putting in a new brace there, adding another stick here, to make it firm enough to bear the weight of the mother and the three young birds which always comprise the brood. ”

“ For many minutes we waited, but no life was visible about the buttonwood bushes which held the nests—no old birds like fragments of fleecy clouds came floating in over the dark canopy of cypress trees. My companion, wise in the ways of hunters, as well as the habits of birds, suspected something wrong and presently found nearby the body of an Egret lying on the ground, its back, from which the skin bearing the fatal aigrettes had been torn, raw and bloody. ”

“ The Great American Egret breeds along the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, and our Atlantic States, from Galveston Island in the Texas to the borders of the State of New York, beyond which, although stragglers have been seen, none, in so far as I can ascertain, have been known to breed. In all low districts that are marshy and covered with large trees, on the margins of ponds or lakes, the sides of bayous, or gloomy swamps covered with water, are the places to which it generally resorts during the period of reproduction ”

“ Eve troubles do not necessarily result from wearing veils, for the healthy eye is as able as any other part of the body to resist the strain they impose upon it. But weak eyes are hurt by them, and prudence should teach not to strain healthy eyes too much.
Domestication of the Egret.—A resolution was adopted at the International Zoölogical Congress held in Leyden in 1895, favoring measures for the preservation and domestication of the egret. Under present conditions the bird, so highly prized for its plumes, is undergoing rapid extermination. ”

“ She jammed the prize, with what seemed scant ceremony, into the beak whose turn it was to get it. The fish was thicker than the youngster's long thin neck, but it was promptly swallowed head first. It went down slowly, with a succession of spasms which looked agonizing, but were, in fact, ecstatic.
Before flying off again to resume her quest [Pg 83] of fish, the mother egret remained for a few moments on the edge of the nest, to rest and preen herself. Her snow-pure plumage shone in the sunlight like spun silver. Her neck feathers were prolonged in fine drooping lines far down over her breast. ”

“ Having found a choice place in a stunted cypress, the egrets soon set about their nest building, choosing a site about forty feet above the swamp. Very affectionate and loving with each other are the egrets; whenever the male bird leaves the cypress, on his return he makes such a fuss over his mate, greeting her as joyfully and tenderly as though he had been gone a week. In fact, the egrets are gentle, trusting birds, and have few enemies among the wild. The father egret does most of the hard work too, for he gathers all the twigs for the nest, which the mother egret carefully builds. ”

“ E.A. McIlhenny's egret preserve, at Avery Island, Louisiana, became a pronounced success, we had believed that our two egrets soon would become totally extinct in the United States. But Mr. McIlhenny has certainly saved those birds to our fauna. In 1892 he started an egret and heron preserve, close beside his house on Avery Island. By 1900 it was an established success. To-day 20,000 pairs of egrets and herons are living and breeding in that bird refuge, and the two egret species are safe in at least one spot in our own country. ”

“ The plumes in question consist of long filamentous feathers that grow from the neck of the egret and also from its breast. In most countries those who obtain these plumes wait until the birds are actually nesting before attempting to secure them, taking advantage of the fact that egrets nest in colonies and of the parental affection of the breeding birds. A few men armed with guns are able to shoot every adult member of the colony, because the egrets continue to feed their young until they are shot. ”

“ And when I returned, two or three hours afterward, from a jaunt up the beach to Mosquito Inlet, there they still were, as if they had not stirred in all that time. The reader should understand that this egret is between four and five feet in length, and measures nearly five feet from wing tip to wing tip, and that its plumage throughout is of spotless white. It is pitiful to think how constantly a bird of that size and color must be in danger of its life. ”

“ The bill is coloured as in the adult, as is the iris, but the feet are dark olive-green, the soles greenish-yellow. The plumage presents the same form as in the adult, but is entirely pure white.
In this state the bird has been described as a distinct species under the name of Peale’s Egret Heron, but must now be restored to its proper species, the adult having been described and figured by Buffon under the name of Aigrette rousse, and named by Latham the Reddish Egret. ”

“ British-killed Egrets (Ardea garzetta) .—In Loudon's 'Magazine of Natural History' for 1836, p. 599, Mr. J.C. Dale, of Glanvilles Wootton, in Dorsetshire, mentions that "at a sale of birds, &c., I attended in March, 1826, at Southampton, was an Egret (a fine specimen) , lot 38, sold for £5 5s., probably shot near that place." Possibly this is the same specimen alluded to by Mr. Newstead (ante, p. 70) , as the date is exactly the same, and the locality in Yorkshire may have been subsequently added to the label under the impression that it had been killed in that county. ”

“ In the Little Blue Heron [Florida cærulea] and Reddish Egret (Dichromanassa rufa) , where dichromatism appears to be an established fact, each species presents different phases and mixtures of both colors, especially the Little Blue, which shows almost every variety of curious markings of blue and white; while in the Reddish Egret, one specimen shows white on the head, tail, and wings, and others reported by Mr. Adams show white on the wings.
“As before said, I believe the bird to be a geographical variation of A. herodias, residing permanently and breeding in South Florida. ”

“ After all, the taking of furs does not compare in cruelty with the shooting of herons and other birds by the tens of thousands, just to pluck an egret or plume and toss the body away. That is a cruel deed that ought to make every woman blush who ever wears an egret on her hat or bonnet. ”

“ I have heard of a number of heronries in South America that are protected by the land owners for the purpose of gathering a yearly crop of egret plumes, but this crop is gathered always by shooting a certain percentage of the birds. This shooting is done by experts with 22-calibre rifles, and does not materially disturb the nesting colony. I have known of two men who have been engaged in killing the birds on large estates in South America, who were paid regular salaries for their services as egret hunters. ”

“ It is utterly impossible to get fifty egret plumes from any colony of breeding birds without shooting the birds. Last spring, I went twice a week to a breeding colony of American and snowy egrets, from early in April until June 8. ”

“ The milliners all agree that the Snowy Egret is doomed to extermination within a short time, its plumes, so fairy-like in texture, rendering its use for trimming as desirable in summer as in winter.
As to the birds of prey, people interested in our feathered friends are as desirous of saving them from destruction as they are to shield the song birds. There are only a few of the Hawks and Owls which are injurious, most of them in fact being beneficial. ”

“ Some are pure white, as is our elegant egret, which has been all but exterminated in the United States by men who kill it in the breeding season, when the beautiful plumes that then adorn its back are at their best, and are marketable as ornaments for hats and military shakos. Every plume bird so killed means the loss of a family of young. Herons are shy, solitary birds, as a rule, nesting on trees in remote swamps in "rookeries" to which they return year after year from their winter retreats in the tropics ”