NATIONAL COMMITTEE OF AUDUBON
SOCIETIES
EDUCATIONAL LEAFLET NO. 7
The Snowy Heron
Order—Herodiones Family—Ardeidæ
Genus—Egretta Species—Egretta candidissima
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.
That Herons are rapidly becoming scarce and more difficult to obtain by the plume-hunters is shown by the difference in price in the raw material. Twenty years since, the cost per ounce was only a few dollars, now it is more than quadrupled. In circulars sent by New York feather dealers to plume-hunters in Florida during 1903, thirty-two dollars per ounce was offered for fine plumes. This not only indicates the rapidly increasing scarcity of the white Herons but also that some dealers are willing, in order to obtain the plumes, to offer special inducements to hunters to violate laws enactd for the protection of these birds.
The much-sought-after plumes are worn by the Herons only for a very limited period during the year, that is, in the breeding season. Unfortunately, during that time the Herons gather in colonies; whether this is for protection or is merely social is not known. During the remainder of the year they are wild and wander over large disctricts, when it is impossible for plume-hunters to kill them in quantities that would afford pecuniary returns. However, during the breeding season the habits of these unfortunate birds change entirely,
-
‘SCALP’ OR RAW
PLUMES AS
TAKEN FROM BACK
OF BIRD -
PLUMES FROM EGRET: THE
‘STUB’ PLUME OF
COMMERCE -
PLUMES FROM BACK OF SNOWY
HERON: THE ‘AIGRETTE’
OR ‘OSPREY’ OF
COMMERCE
and with the growth of the parental instinct they lose all sense of fear or wilderness and the hunter has little trouble in securing his victims. The death of the parent birds entails the destruction of the helpless nestlings by the painful and lingering method of starvation.
Mr. Chapman says, in his ‘Birds of Eastern North America,’ “The destruction of these birds is an unpleasant subject. It is a blot on Florida’s history.” The blood stain is not on Florida alone but may be found in every part of the world. A few years more of reckless slaughter during the breeding season and the white Herons will be classed among the extinct birds, the number of which is far too rapidly increasing.
Dealers often state that ‘aigrettes’ are manufactured, but this is not so; man has never been able to imitate successfully these beautiful plumes; all that are offered for sale have been torn from the backs of the smaller white Herons. Even the stiff plumes, which are known in the trade as ‘stubs,’ are not manufactured but are the plumes of the larger species of white Herons.
Herons’ plumes are often sold as ‘ospreys’; this is simply another trade name used to disguise the fact that they are Herons’ plumes; the ‘Osprey’ of science is the Fish Hawk which produces no plumes of any kind.
Both ‘aigrettes’ and ‘stubs’ are dyed various colors, especially black; however, no matter what the tint of the plume when offered for sale at the milliners’, its original color when on the back of the Heron was white; the artificial color is merely in response to the dictates of fashion. It is conceded that the sale of aigrettes from American birds is prohibited, but it is claimed that there are no laws that prevent the sale of imported goods. Granting that this may be the case, how is the buyer to tell whether the goods are from American an or Old World Herons? The most expert ornithologists cannot separate the plumes after they are taken from the birds.
The wearing of ‘aigrettes,‘ or plumes from the white Herons. whether native or foreign, has now become a question at ethics which every woman must decide for herself. It matters not a whit where the plume comes from, the fact remains the same that the woman who wears one is party to a cruel wrong and the plume itself becomes a badge of inhumanity and is no longer a thing of beauty.
HERON FROM WHICH PLUMES HAVE BEEN TORN
“Mark, how the Mother lulls to slumber
Her new-born Babe with tend’rous love
And guards her treasure from above!”
The word Mother is the most sacred of all names, and motherhood is the closest of all human ties. Oh, Mother! when you nestle your little one to your loving breast and look into the eyes that reflect the mother-love shining from your own, do you not sometimes think with an involuntary shudder of the sorrow and grief it would he were the child to be taken from you? Or, still worse if your tender care were to be removed from the helpless infant? While this thought is still with you, extend it to the bird-mother, for she surely has for her offspring the same tender love that you have for yours; she has the same affection, the same willingness to face danger to protect what is to all mothers dearer than life itself. 0h, human mother! will you again wear for personal adornment a plume taken from the dead body of a bird-mother, the plume that is the emblem of her married life as the golden circlet is of your own, the plume that was taken from her bleeding body because her motherhood was so strong that she was willing to give up life itself rather than abandon her helpless infants! Whenever you are tempted in the future to wear a Heron’s plume, think for a moment of your own motherhood, and spare the bird-mother and her little ones.
Study Points lot Teachers and students
Trace distribution of each species of white Heron on the map of the world. When are the plumes worn by the Herons? Which species of Heron have recurved plumes? Which have straight plumes? How are Herons’ plumes procured for the millinery trade? Do the habits of Herons change at any period in the year? In what way?
For life history of the American White Herons, read “Audubon’s American Ornithological Biography”; for cause of probable extermination of white Herons in America read “The Present Condition of Some of the Bird Rockeries of the Gulf Coast of Florida,” by W. E. D. Scott, Auk Vol. IV, pp. 135-141, 213-222, 273-284; also “Stories of Bird Life,” by T. Gilbert Pearson.