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 full 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, so 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 fiveeighths
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 or a river, while engaged in
procuring their food, form a most agreeable sight. In autumn and early
spring, they are fond of resorting to the ditches of the rice fields, not unfrequently
in company with the Blue Herons. When, on being wounded
in the wing one falls into the water, it swims off towards the nearest
shore, and runs to hide itself by the side of some log, or towards a tree
which if possible it climbs, ascending to its very top. When seized, they