The Snowy Heron
Chairman National Committee of Audubon Societies
Description,—Snowy Heron (Egretta candidissma). There is no difference in the plumage of the sexes, both of which are pur white. Occipital (top of head) and jugular (lower throat) region with plumes. From the interscapular region (between the shoulders) grow a large number of “aigrette” plumes which extend to or beyond the tail and, when in perfect condition, are recurved at tip; lores (front of eye), eyes and feet yellow. Bill black, except at base, which is yellow; legs black, except lower portion behind, which is yellow. The adults after the breeding season and the immature birds do not have the “aigrette” plumes. Length from tip of bill to end of tail not including plumes, varies from twenty to twenty-seven inches.
The Snowy Heron always breeds in colonies. Nest, a closely built platform of sticks, in rushes, bushes or trees in swamps. Eggs, three to five in number, of a light greenish blue color.
Distribution,—All of temperate and tropical America between 41° north latitude on the Atlantic coast; 45° north latitude on the Pacific coast, and 35° south latitude. After the breeding season, stragglers from the southern states sometimes wander as far north as Nova Scotia and Ontario.
The American Egret (Herodias egretta) is almost twice the size of the Snowy Heron, its length being from thirty-seven to forty-one inches; it is also pure white, and both sexes have during the breeding season only a large number of interscapular plumes which extend beyond the tail. These plumes are straight, and not recurved as are those of its smaller relative.
The white Herons of the other parts of the world are very similar to those found on the American continent, even to the difference in size. Corresponding to the Snowy Heron in America, Garzetta garzetta is found in southern Europe, across to China and Japan, south to the Burmese countries and the Indian Peninsula and Ceylon, Philippine Islands, Malay Peninsula, and the whole of Africa. A second small form, Garzetta nigripes is found from Java throughout the Moluccas to Australia. The large forms, corresponding to the American Egret are Herodias alba of southern Europe, east to central Asia, and south to Africa, the Indian Peninsula and the Burmese countries; and Herodias timoriensis, which is found from Japan and north China, south through the Malayan Archipelago to Australia.
The food of Herons consists fo shrimp, small fish, aquatic insects, crayfish, and life found along the shores and in swamps. Economically, so far as known, they are neutral or harmless, but may prove to be highly beneficial when a scientific study of their food has been made.
The recent history of the White Herons is pathetic in the extreme, as it is a tale of persecution and rapid extermination. It was a sad day when fashion decreed that the nuptial plumes of these birds should be worn as millinery ornaments. Feathers and scalps, rapine and blood are the accompaniments of savage life, but better things are expected of civilization.
It is hardly possible that any women of the present day are unacuainted with all the horrible details of plume-hunting. The following pen picture of the horrors of the plume trade, drawn by Prof. T. Gilbert Pearson, Secretary of the North Carolina Audubon Society, shows the work in all its bloody reality:
“In the tall buses, growing in a secluded pond in a swamp, a small colony of Herons had their nesting home. I accompanied a squirrel-hunter one day to the spot, and the scene which met our eyes was not a pleasant one. I had expected to see some of the beautiful Herons about their nests, or standing on the trees near by, but not a living one could be found, while here and there in the mud lay the lifeless forms of eight of the birds. They ahd been shot down and the skin bearing the plumes stripped from their backs. Flies were busily at work, and they warmed up with hideous buzzings as we approached each spot where a victim lay. This was not the worst: in four of the nests young orphan birds could be seen who were clamoring piteously for food which their dead parents could never again bring to them. A little one was discovered lying with its head and neck hanging out of the nest, happily now past suffering. On higher ground the embers of a fire gave evidence of the plume-hunters’ camp.
The next spring I visited this nesting site, but found only the old nests fast falling to decay.
When man comes, slaughters and exterminates, Nature does not restore.”
This story of a single Florida colony is the story of what has happened in all of Florida, the Gulf coast of the United States, along the Mexican and Central American coast, both on the Atlantic and Pacific sides, and has extended into South America. From the enormous numbers of Herons’ plumes that are annually sold in the London feather market there is no doubt that plume-hunters are at work wherever the white Herons are found.
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