Steven Alexander, age 10 of W, Medford, OR.
What is an egret?
The swan is perhaps our most graceful bird and the mockingbird has one of the sweetest songs. The hawk is the ,fastest flier and. little hammer is certainly the cutest. There is no end to the wonders of the bard world. But when it comes to an all round beauty contest, the first place would most likely be won by the snowy egret of North America.
This lovely creature stands tall and slim on long, thin legs. His head and neck are as graceful as an Easter lily. His elegant held is tufted with a fine feathery erect. His smooth, satiny plumage is whiter than the whitest snow. During the courting season, the egret adds to his beauty by growing tresses of long fine feathers called aigrettes. These fine trailing plumes fall around the neck and over the arched shoulders.
His delicate feathers almost led to the total destruction of our lovely bird. Early in this century, these frothy feathers were worn on womenrs hats. They were bought and sold for high prices in the millinery world. Hunters went off to the rookeries to supply the demand. The handsome birds wars plundered without mercy and their numbers became less and less. It looked as though the egret would be totally destroyed,
One of the finest pictures done by John James Audubon, the great painter of birds, was of a, snowy egret. The Audubon Society, for the study and protection of wild birds,, was established in his honor. When the sad plight of the egret became known, the Audubon Society sent help, Wardens were appointed to protect the birds in the rookeries. So grieedy wire the hunters, that one of these wardens was shot and killed. Nowadays, there are
Nowadays, there are strut laws to protect the magnificent birds. Egryt feathers on ladies' hats are both out of style and outside the law.
The elegant egret is a member of the heron family. The ibises and the storks are his more distant cousins. Most of these birds are waders with long, spindly legs, long necks and long, straight bills. They tend to haunt the swamps and marshes. They feed, most of them, upon fish and frogs, upon crabs and other wrigglers who hurry and scurry through the water. For hours they stand, often on one long stiff leg, ankle deep in the marshes waiting for dinner.
Some egrets are greys some are slate blue and some are a rusty red color. Most of the lovely creatures have their nesting grounds in the swamps of the Gulf coast, along the Atlantic shores and most especially in the lush Florida Everglades. When the nesting season is over, many egrets straggle northward. In late summer and early fall, the loveliest of birds is often seen as far north as Canada.