The Snowy Egret

(The Bonnet Martyr.)

Length about two feet.

Pure white all over, with a bunch of many long slender plumes growing between the shoulders, and shorter ones on the head and neck, in the nesting season.  Feet and legs black.  Toes yellow.  Bill black and yellow.

A Citizen of temperate and tropical America.

A member of the guild of Wise Watchers, whose food and habits are the same as those of most other Herons, and who, if he does us no special good service, is perfectly innocent, and should never be butchered to make a woman’s Easter holiday bonnet.

He has a larger brother called the American White Egret, as pure white as himself, but three feet or more instead of only two feet long, with the plumes hanging down over his tail instead of curled up, and none growing on his head.

The Great Blue Heron

(Or Blue Giant)

Length about four feet.

Plumage mostly slate-gray or bluish-ash, but black and white on the head and each side of the breast, and chestnut on the bend of the wing.  A crest on the back of the head, a fringe of long feathers at the root of the neck in front, and another on the back in the breeding season.  Feathers on upper part of the legs reddish-brown, the bare scaly part black; bill yellow and greenish, with black on top; bare skin between it and the eyes blue.

A Citizen of North America.

A member of the guild of Wise Watchers who is wise enough to mind his own business and do nobody any harm, though he is not inclined to be sociable with House People.  “I think we had best be going toward the house,” said Olaf, glancing at the sky; “there’s thunder-heads racing up.”  So the children, always ready for something new, started eagerly, and bewildered Olaf with questions about clouds and weather signs all the way home.

CHAPTER XXIX

UP THE RIVER

The thunder-clouds thickened until the whole sky was black; the tide rose in great waves, and the children were glad to be in the house.  But the storm played so many strange pranks that they could not keep away from the windows, asking a hundred questions about things that cannot be put in a bird book.

“If the water keeps up on end, as it is doing now,” said Olaf, “it will be a week before I dare take you over to Gull Island; but I was talking to a man from up the river yesterday, and he says the reed shallows are full of Rails—­maybe you’d like to see them.”

“Rails, what are they?” asked Nat.  “I thought rails were the steel things that cars run on, or else some kind of fence bars.”

“The Rails that Olaf speaks of are marsh birds,” said the Doctor.  “Some are about as big as Robins, and some are bigger still, shaped like long-legged, long-necked, bob-tailed Hens, with long curved beaks.  In fact, some members of the family are called Marsh Hens from this resemblance.  Olaf often guides gunners through the waterways to find these birds; he shall take you also, and perhaps you may find some old Marsh Wrens’ nests at the same time.”