Audubon's Birds/BIRDSVER1_3.BIN/dp/0063/00634.txt

Text File | 1992-08-27 | 14KB | 216 lines

$Unique_ID{BRD00634}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{The Snowy Heron}
$Subject{Ardeinae; Ardea; Egretta; candidissima; thula; Snowy Heron; Snowy
Egret}
$Journal{Birds of America:  Volume VI}
$Volume{Vol. 6:163-167}
$Family{Ardeinae}
$Genus{Ardea; Egretta}
$Species{candidissima; thula}
$Common_Name{Snowy Heron; Snowy Egret}
$Log{
Plate CCCLXXIV*00634P1.scf
Family*00621.txt
Genus*00622.txt
}

       Portions copyright (c) Creative Multimedia Corp., 1990-91, 1992

                       B I R D S   O F   A M E R I C A .

                    By John James Audubon, F. R. SS. L. & E.

                   ------------------------------------------
                                   VOL.  VI.
                        --------------------------------


                                THE SNOWY HERON.
                                 [Snowy Egret.]


                           ARDEA CANDIDISSIMA, Gmel.
                                [Egretta thula.]


                             PLATE CCCLXXIV.--MALE.


     This beautiful species is a constant resident in Florida and Louisiana,
where thousands are seen during winter, and where many remain during the
breeding season.  It is perhaps of a still more delicate constitution than the
Blue Heron, Ardea coerulea, as no individuals remain in the neighbourbood of
Charleston when the winter happens to be rather colder than usual.  In its
migrations eastward it rarely proceeds farther than Long Island in the State of
New York; few are seen in Massachusetts, and none farther to the east.  My
friend Professor MACCULLOCH never heard of it in Nova Scotia, and I cannot
imagine on what authority WILSON stated that it inhabits the sea-coast of North
America to the Gulf of St. Lawrence.  My friend NUTTALL also asserts, without
mentioning on what evidence, that, by pursuing an inland course, it reaches its
final destination in the wilds of Canada.  It has not been observed in any part
of the western country; nay, it rarely ascends the Mississippi as high as
Memphis, or about two hundred miles from the mouth of the Ohio, and cannot be
said to be at all abundant much farther up the great river than Natchez.  In
fact, the maritime districts furnish its favourite places of resort, and it
rarely proceeds farther inland than fifty or sixty miles, even in the flat
portions of the Carolinas, or in the Middle States, where it prefers the
islands along the Atlantic coast.
     While I was at Charleston, in March 1831, few had arrived from the Floridas
by the 18th of that month, but on the 25th thousands were seen in the marshes
and rice-fields, all in full plumage.  They reach the shores of New Jersey about
the first week of May, when they may be seen on all parts of the coast between
that district and the Gulf of Mexico.  On the Mississippi, they seldom reach the
low grounds about Natchez, where they also breed, earlier than the period at
which they appear in the Middle States.
     While migrating, they fly both by night and by day, in loose flocks of from
twenty to a hundred individuals, sometimes arranging themselves in a broad
front, then forming lines, and again proceeding in a straggling manner.  They
keep perfectly silent, and move at a height seldom exceeding a hundred yards.
Their flight is light, undetermined as it were, yet well sustained, and
performed by regular flappings, as in other birds of the tribe.  When they have
arrived at their destination, they often go to considerable distances to feed
during the day, regularly returning at the approach of night to their roosts on
the low trees and bushes bordering the marshes, swamps, and ponds.  They are
very gentle at this season, and at all periods keep in flocks when not
disturbed.  At the approach of the breeding season, many spend a great part of
the day at their roosting places, perched on the low trees principally growing
in the water, when every now and then they utter a rough guttural sort of sigh,
raising at the same moment their beautiful crest and loose recurved plumes,
curving the neck, and rising on their legs to their frill height, as if about to
strut on the branches.  They act in the same manner while on the ground mating.
Then the male, with great ardour, and with the most graceful motions, passes and
repasses for several minutes at a time before and around the female, whose
actions are similar, although she displays less ardour.  When disturbed on such
occasions, they rise high in the air, sail about and over the spot in perfect
silence, awaiting the departure of the intruder, then sweep along, exhibiting
the most singular movements, now and then tumbling over and over like the
Tumbler Pigeon, and at length alight on a tree.  On the contrary, when you
intrude upon them while breeding, they rise silently on wing, alight on the
trees near, and remain there until you depart.
     The Snowy Herons breed in large communities; and so very social are they,
that they do not appear even to attempt to disturb such other birds as are wont
to breed among them, the Night Herons, for instance, the Green Herons, or the
Boat-tailed Grakles.  I have visited some of their breeding grounds, where
several hundred pairs were to be seen, and several nests were placed on the
branches of the same bush, as low at times that I could easily see into them,
although others were situated at a height of ten or fifteen feet.  In places
where these birds are often disturbed, they breed in taller trees, though rarely
on very high ones.  In the Floridas I found their nests on low mangroves; but
wherever they are placed you find them fronting the water, over which, indeed,
these Herons seem fond of placing them.  The nest, which is formed of dry
sticks, is rather small, and has a shallow cavity.  The eggs are three, one inch
and five-eighths and a half in length, one and a quarter across, of a broadly
elliptical form, and having a plain pale bluish-green colour.  In the Middle
Districts, the usual time of laying is about the middle of May; in the Carolinas
a month sooner; and in the Floridas still earlier, as there, on the 19th of May,
I found the young in great numbers walking off their nests on the mangrove
branches, and, like those of the Louisiana Heron, which also breeds in the same
places, trying to escape by falling into the water below, and swimming in search
of hiding-places among the roots and hanging branches.  Both sexes incubate.
Many of the eggs are destroyed by Crows and Turkey Buzzards, which also devour
the young, and many are carried off by men.
     The young acquire the full beauty of their plumage in the course of the
first spring, when they can no longer be distinguished from the old birds.  The
legs and feet are at first of a darkish olive, as is the bill, except at the
base, where it is lighter, and inclining to yellow.  At the approach of autumn,
the crest assumes a form, and the feathers of the lower parts of the neck in
front become considerably lengthened, the feet acquire a yellow tint, and the
legs are marked with black on a yellowish ground; but the flowing feathers of
the back do not appear until the approach of spring, when they grow rapidly,
become recurved, and remain until the young are hatched, when they fall off.
     The Snowy Heron, while in the Carolinas, in the month of April, resorts to
the borders of the salt-water marshes, and feeds principally on shrimps.  Many
individuals which I opened there contained nothing else in their stomach.  On
the Mississippi, at the time when the shrimps are ascending the stream, these
birds are frequently seen standing on floating logs, busily engaged in picking
them up; and on such occasions their pure white colour renders them conspicuous
and highly pleasing to the eye.  At a later period, they feed on small fry,
fiddlers, snails, aquatic insects, occasionally small lizards and young frogs.
Their motions are generally quick and elegant, and, while pursuing small fishes,
they run swiftly through the shallows, throwing up their wings.  Twenty or
thirty seen at once along the margins of a marsh