Great American Egret or White Heron (Ardea alba), Volume 4, Plate 386

Probably painted in South Carolina in the summer of 1832. The bird’s head and neck were drawn on a separate piece of paper.

The plate depicts a male bird in his breeding plumage on a beech, in a characteristic feeding posture, with his neck drawn back as he is about to snatch his prey (a decision that allows Audubon to cram this large bird into the frame of his picture). The egret’s finely feathered train—which Audubon correctly predicts will be the cause of the bird’s extinction—cannot be matched by anything else in nature; hence the comparatively coarse–looking grass in the background. Havell added Maria Martin’s horned lizard from the watercolor for plate 372; as a desert animal it seems entirely out of place here. Audubon’s essay meticulously records the beauty of the bird as well as the forces bent on its destruction, such as the gentleman in Charleston who procured 100 White Herons for his personal amusement.

From John James Audubon’s Ornithological Biography

The flight of this species is in strength intermediate between that of Ardea Herodias and A. rufescens, and is well sustained. On foot its movements are as graceful as those of the Louisiana Heron, its steps measured, its long neck gracefully retracted and curved, and its silky train reminded one of the flowing robes of the noble ladies of Europe. The train of this Egret, like that of other species, makes its appearance a few weeks previous to the love season, continues to grow and increase in beauty, until incubation has commenced, after which period it deteriorates, and at length disappears about the time when the young birds leave the nest, when, were it not for the difference in size, it would be difficult to distinguish them from their parents. Should you however closely examine the upper plumage of an old bird of either sex, for both possess the train, you will discover that its feathers still exist, although shortened and deprived of most of their filaments. Similar feathers are seen in all other Herons that have a largely developed train in the breeding season. Even the few plumes hanging from the hind part of the Ardea Herodias, A. Nycticorax, and A. violacea, are subject to the same rule; and it is curious to see these ornaments becoming more or less apparent, according to the latitude in which these birds breed, their growth being completed in the southern part of Florida two months sooner than in our Middle Districts.