But still the whole scene was peaceful; and as the sun grew warmer, young herons and egrets crawled out of their nests on the island a few yards away and preened their scanty plumage.
With them were gallinules and small green herons, and across the pink mist of lotos blossoms just beyond, three egrets drew three lines of purest white--and vanished.
Its gregarious brethren, the Cattle Egrets (Bubulcus coromandus), on the other hand, display no danger signal.
As egrets also have long trains of plumes growing from the back, it cannot be said that the short tail of the vast majority of the waders is due to the fact that these birds would be at a disadvantage were their caudal feathers long.
In most countries those who obtain these plumes wait until the birds are actually nesting before attempting to secure them, taking advantage of the fact that egrets nest in colonies and of the parental affection of the breeding birds.
Taking advantage of the social habits of these egrets the plume-hunters issue forth early in May and betake themselves, in parties of five or six, to the villages where the birds roost.
In the case of cattle-egrets (Bubulcus coromandus) the custom of shooting them when on the nest has given place to a more humane and more sensible method of obtaining their nuchal plumes.
A few men armed with guns are able to shoot every adult member of the colony, because the egrets continue to feed their young until they are shot.
As the plumes of these birds are worth nearly their weight in gold, egrets have become extinct in some parts of the world.
By the end of August most of the night-herons and those of the various species of egrets that have not been killed by the plume-hunters are able to congratulate themselves on having successfully reared up their broods.
Each bird is the close relative of a similar bird in Europe, so that what is read concerning Herons and Egrets there, applies equally to our members of this widely-distributed family.
Egrets are shy, and are approachable only in the breeding season.
The female is thus rendered more conspicuous during the period of incubation than during the winter; but such birds as herons and egrets would be able to defend themselves.
Lastly, in regard to the young differing greatly from both sexes in their adult summer and winter plumages, this occurs with some herons and egrets of North America and India,--the young alone being white.
We have an instance of the first of these four cases in one of the egrets of India (Buphus coromandus), in which the young and the adults of both sexes are white during the winter, the adults becoming golden-buff during the summer.
I shall have hereafter to refer to the young of certain herons and egrets being white.
So, if ever you want to wear egret feathers, think of the dozen baby egrets who must starve and die if you are to have them.
In fact, they have killed off so many of these lovely birds, to get feathers for rich women's hats, that to-day there are hardly any snowy egrets left in the United States.
Worse than that, the hunters killed the Papa and Mamma egrets just when their babies were born, because at that time the feathers of the snowy egrets were the softest and loveliest.
The smallerEgrets first flew up onto the reeds above the nests, and then immediately took to flight, not returning; while N.
The larger Egretsremained standing on their nests till I was within twenty yards of them, and alighted again when I had passed.
This war of extermination which was carried forward unchecked for years could mean but one thing, namely, the rapid disappearance of the Egrets in the United States.
They said they were hunting cattle, but I knew better--they were after Egrets and came to see if I was on guard.
One of the greatest struggles the Audubon Society has ever had has been to raise funds every year for the protection of the colonies of Egrets and Ibis in the South Atlantic States.
There was a few years ago, in a Georgia city, an attorney who accepted the aigrette "scalps" of twenty-seven Egrets from a client who was unable to pay cash for a small service rendered.
This was the start of a rookery that now covers 35 acres, and contains more than twenty thousand pairs of nesting birds, embracing not only the egrets but all the species of herons found in Louisiana, besides many other water birds.
I have known these people to tie and prop up wounded egrets on the marsh where they would attract the attention of other birds flying by.
Now with these enormous prices prevailing, is it any wonder that the egrets and herons are being relentlessly pursued to the uttermost ends of the earth?
By 1908, the plume-hunters had so far won the fight for the egrets that Florida had been swept almost as bare of these birds as the Colorado desert.
If that millinery plume law is repealed, the fate of the American and snowy egrets is sealed, for the few birds that remain will be shot to the very last one.
McIlhenny] Three years ago, I think there were not many bird-lovers in the United States, who believed it possible to prevent the total extinction of both egrets from our fauna.
McIlhenny's egret preserve, at Avery Island, Louisiana, became a pronounced success, we had believed that our two egrets soon would become totally extinct in the United States.
We of the "Capella" are its only witnesses, except those pale ghosts, the egrets about the dim aqueous base of the forest.
Herons, storks, and egrets were white and still about the tangle of aqueous roots.
Daily and hourly they were surrounded by a truculent mob of pelicans, herons, ibises, storks, egrets and ducks, the most of whom delighted in wrecking households.
The two kinds of white herons with wonderful plumes that have been put to such uses are called Egrets and Snowy Egrets, and the feathers, when they are stripped from the birds, are called by the French name of aigrette.
But, because they are worth a good deal, men who would kill every bird in the world for money go out with guns, and shoot these poor White Egrets whenever and wherever they see them.
That is why I wish the feathers of the poor White Egrets were not worth even a penny.
Of course it is very unhealthy for them, and they often die there; but the women with the frozen hearts do not mind that, any more than they mind the Egrets being shot.
But, at any rate, the White Egrets would be left alive.
At Ulithi Atoll, three egrets were seen on August 15 at Potangeras Island, feeding in grassy areas adjacent to the beach.
The NAMRU2 party found grasshoppers, other insects, spiders and lizards in the stomachs of egrets taken at Guam, Ulithi, and Angaur.
Dale Arvey observed egrets in swamps along the Ylig River at Guam.
In the southern Palaus, the NAMRU2 party found egrets in August and September on tidal flats and open grasslands at Peleliu and Angaur.
The egrets are more than two inches long, each composed of six or seven feathers, and situate behind the upper end of the black band bounding the face.
The egrets or ear feathers are tipped with blackish-brown, the inner webs being white varied with wood-brown.
White egrets were plentiful at the edge of the water, and hummingbirds, in some places, were whirring about the flowers overhead.
Snow-white egrets of two species stand about the margins of the water, and dusky- striped herons may be seen half hidden under the shade of the bushes.
We have an instance of the first of these four cases in one of the egrets of India (Buphus coromandus), in which the young and the adults of both sexes are white during the winter, the adults becoming golden-buff during the summer.
Numbers of the long-legged egrets were wading in the shallow water, stopping now and then to dart their long, sharp bills into the throngs of fish dashing about their feet.
Overhead, in the gnarled branches and leafy boughs were scores of snowy birds, egrets that had chosen the place for a nesting site.
Of course it was the egrets and their presence here explained their absence in the treetops.
The creatures that could work such havoc among the shy egrets and the after-effects of whose presence was violent sickness, were not to be taken too lightly and Warruk felt a distrust of the insidious power they must possess.
The egrets laid their eggs on the former ocean-line and the wave swept them away.
The egrets swore that the sea should be filled up until she surrendered the eggs.
Beautiful snow-white egrets also lit in the trees, often well back from the river.
As usual, these egrets associate in large flocks, of their own kind or other small herons.
Like that of other herons; eggs slightly more greenish blue than those of the other egrets (1.
This species is the most beautiful of the Egrets and consequently is the one that has suffered most from "plume hunters.
The milk-white egrets and jabirus are distinguished at a great distance, and in the æta- and coucourite-trees you may observe flocks of scarlet and blue aras feeding on the seeds.
The scarlet curlew breeds in innumerable quantities in the muddy islands on the coasts of Pomauron; the egrets and crabiers in the same place.
Ten individuals of this species were feeding in association with Reddish Egrets in the inlet at Camp 2 on July 9.
We saw a white (immature) individual feeding with Reddish Egretsalong an inlet at Camp 2 on July 8.
The doctor wrote a letter; it was rather a wild letter about plumes and egrets and the difficulty of distinguishing Herodias alba from the stork which brought babies.
The primrose dawn had passed to amber, the amber was beginning to flame, the whirring wings had carried the birds to distant feeding grounds, only a flock of egrets remained fishing solemnly in a distant shallow.
The above list will hopefully give you a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "egrets" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this word.
