Ill‘llithS AND Bl'l'TEltNS. ]:‘,3 A'm‘t, a platform of stieks. generally in eolonies, in trees. [Cg/gs, three to four, pale, dull lrlue, :j'ott x 1'50.

Is it, due to the intluenee of the artists of the Orient that these long-legged. long—neelted hirds are so frequently misealled “Cranes"? With head drawn in and legs trailing on llt’llilld, they tlap slowly over the water. resembling, no doubt, the "('ranes" of fans. sereens, and lironxes; nevertheless. they are llerons. With all a Heron‘s innnorahle alertness they wateh patiently for passing tish, sometimes wading with extreme caution, plating one foot slowly after the other. They feed both by day and night. Fishes, frogs. reptiles. even small miee, all are welcome; and all are powerless to escape the lightning thrust of the spearlilte bill. 'l‘heir wire is harsh and rasping. When alarmed tlieyntte ‘a eroalt whieh is sometimes prolonged into a seriesof squaw/rs. They nest and roost in colonies. but at other times are solitary birds.

The, lit'itoriiax GREAT Bur. lli-ziiox I [.05. din/.41 eimrcm is aeeidental in southern Greenland. It may ltt‘ distinguished from our species hy the white instead of rufous feathers on the legs.

196. Ardea. egretta. (IV/2v]. Ayn-zeroes lit :liT. .tvl. 1’11 brtoliug playroom—Entire plumage, pure white : alwut tit'ty slimy/4t “ aigrette“ plumes grow from the interseapular region and reaeh lu-yond the tail: legs and feet lilaek; lllll yellow; lores orange. liordered luelow liy greenish. Ail. (Mar the lower/[mg season «Im/ InniWitliont the interseapular plumes. L.,41‘UU; \\'., time; '1 Troll: 13.. 4'5“.

[.‘(mg/trr—Trtnpieal and temperate Ameriea: hreeds as far north as southern

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Illinois and Virginia; alter the lireedin: season sometimes strays northward as far as Manitolia. Queliee. and New Brunswick.

\\':tshington. not common and irregular >3. 1., May to August. Long Island. rare from July to Sept. Sing Sing. .-\. \'.

Aist, a platthrm ot' stieks. in eolonies. in hushes over water. Eyes. three to tire, dull ltlllt‘, of a rather deeper shade than those ot‘ the preeeding, 2'25 x 1'60.

Tourists who went to Florida thirty years ago have told me of prairies white with l‘fgrets. of bushy islands glistening in the sun lilte snow hanks. Now you may look for miles along a lake shore and per- haps in the distance see a solitary Egret. which. as you approaeh. with a frightened squall-la takes wing a rifle-shot away. The rapid exter- mination of these plume-bearing birds is startling evidence of man's power in the animal World. At his word a speeies is almost imme- diately wiped out of existent-e. I have heard a " plume-hunter” boast; of killing three hundred llerons in a “rookeryn in one afternoon. Another proudly stated that he and his Companions had killed one hundred and thirty thousand birds—Herons. Egrets, and Terms—dur- iner one winter. But the destruction of these birds is an unpleasant: