376 AVES. 



in the adult male, is chang^ed into a long tuft: inhabits the hot 

 and marshy parts of South America. 

 Then comes, 



Ardea, Cuv. 



Or the Herons, the cleft of whose beak extends to beneath the eyes, 

 a small nasal fossa continuing on in a groove close to its point. 

 They are also distinguished by the internal edge of the nail of the 

 middle toe, which is trenchant an<l denticulated. Their legs are 

 scutellated; the thumb and toes tolerably long, the external web con- 

 siderable, and the eyes placed in a naked skin which extends to the 

 beak. Their stomach is a very large, but slightly muscular sac, 

 and they have but one very small caecum. They are melancholy 

 birds, which build and perch on the banks of rivers, where they de- 

 stroy great numbers offish. There are many species in both conti- 

 nents, which can only be divided by a reference to some details of 

 plumage. 



The true Herons have a very slender neck, ornamented below with 

 long*pendent feathers. 



rd. major, and Ard. cinerea, L.; Enl. 755 and 787j Frisch, 

 198, 199j Naum. Ed. I, 25, f. 33, 34. (The Common Heron.) 

 Bluish ash colour; a black tuft on the occiputj fore-part of the 

 neck white, sprinkled with black tearsj a large bird, whose 

 depredations on the fish, in the rivers of Europe, render it 

 highly prejudicial. It was formerly much celebrated for the 

 sport it afforded to falconers. 



Ard. purpurea, Enl. 788; Naum. Ed. I, Supp. 45, f. 89, 90.(1) 



(The Purple Heron.) Grey and red, or purple; belongs also to 



Europe. 



The name of Crabeaters, (Crabiers,) has been applied to the 



smallest Herons, with shorter feet. The species most common in 



France, and found in its mountain districts, is, 



Ard. minuta and danubialis, Gm.; Le Blongios; Enl. 323; 

 Frisch, 207; Naum. Ed. I, 28, f. 2,7. Fawn coloured; calotte, 

 back, and quills black. It is hardly larger than a Rallus, and 

 frequents the vicinity of ponds. 



(1) The Ard. purpurea, purpurata, rufa, Gm., and the africana. Lath., accord- 

 ing to Meyer, are mere varieties of the purple Heron. 



Add A. herodias, Gm. ; Wils. VIII, Ixv, 2, the young- of which is, perhaps, Enl. 

 858; .. cocoi, Lath.; Spix, XC, under the false name oi Ard. maquuri; A. sibila- 

 trix, T. Col. 271; A. ludoviciana, Gm. Enl. 909, from which the A. virescem does 

 not specifically differ; A. Novse-Guinae, Lath. Enl. 926, approaches somewhat to 

 the A. scolopacea, Gm. in the beak. 



