Snowy Egret

I saw a small flock of these EGRETs near Mosquito Lagoon, Florida, and saw about twenty more in Indian River Narrows. It was October and the birds in winter plumage.

They are the most exquisite and the gentlest of their family. With downward curved neck, head and breast plumes thrown forward, they step daintily along a branch to greet their mate while delicate back aigrettes wave in the air like bits of filmy cloud. The birds undoubtedly are beauty-conscious for the display is given with a delightful vanity which entirely charms the fortunate observer.

Sometimes a flock will become imbued with a spirit of play which shows in wild rushing and scampering thru the shallow water. Leaping, fluttering and flying until the water is foam, the air a blur of white forms, the birds release the electric life within with unrestrained abandon.

In barbaric days, a generation back, demand for plumes to adorn hats brot these beautiful birds to the precipice of extinction. Those days are gone. A most interesting experiment which proves how quickly wild life recovers if given half a chance, was made by Mr. McIlhenny at Avery Island, Louisiana. He increased water area by a dam, took eight young Egrets from two nests, placed them in a cage on the pond's edge and released them in the Autumn. Six returned next Spring, mated and raised young. This continued until the colony now numbers thousands!