Dora D'Aversa, age 11, of Miami, Fla., for her question:

HOW MANY KINDS OF EGRETS ARE THERE?

The graceful egret is a member of the larger heron and bittern family of birds. There are 114 species of herons divided into seven groups. There are eight members in the egret family.

A number of the egrets live in America, and mostly in the southern states.

The tall and handsome American egret and the snowy egret have the finest plumage. The long plumes are called aigrettes by hatmakers. Also found in America is the cattle egret and the reddish egret. The reddish egret has a slate colored body and reddish head and neck while the cattle egret is a small white bird with pink eyes and yellow bill. As the name suggests, the last bird feeds on insects stirred up by grazing cattle.

The cattle egret was originally from Asia but was seen first Florida in 1942. It is now fairly common in many parts of the United States.

Plume hunters used to kill so many egrets that there was danger none would be left. But the Audubon Society and many state and federal game laws now protect them. The United States also has egret sancturies to protect these birds in South Carolina, Florida, Louisiana and Texas.