The Cattle Egret in Jamaica, British West Indies
The Cattle Egret in Jamaica, British West Indies.--On a visit to the Bodles livestock experiment station in Jamaica on November 21, 1956, more than 20 Cattle Egrets were seen feeding, in typical fashion, among the steers on an experimental pasture. Bodles is on the low-lying plain on the south side of Jamaica, not far from the town of May Pen. The elevation is estimated at about 50 feet.
Dr. T. P. Lecky, of the Jamaican Department of Agriculture, who was showing us the station, remarked that the birds had appeared about 10 days previous, and that he had never before seen white herons feeding in among the cattle in this fashion. He and Mr. Tom J. Jackson of St. Croix, who were familiar with the white immature Little Blue Heron, were quick to see the difference in heaviness of head and neck and in leg color when these were pointed out.
This sight record is offered because I am thoroughly familiar with the birds in St. Croix, and because I regard it, as serving to fill in the range rather than to extend it ; the species has been collected in Cuba (Sprunt, Bull. Mass. Audubon Sot., 40, 1956:65-69) and the Virgin Islands (Seaman, Wilson Bull., 67, 1955:304-305), and it is common in Puerto Rico (letter from James Bond to G. A. Seaman, March 4, 1955).-R. M. BOND, Kingshal, St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, December 3, 1956.
