594 THE HERONS. 



men among the Waders. Even the Godwits, Willets and 

 Curlews are but pigmies as compared with their larger rep- 

 resentatives; and no species of Plover, Snipe or Sandpiper 

 has a bill at all adapted to seizing fish. The long, slender- 

 pointed bill of the Heron is a most effective spear; his stilt- 

 like legs are long enough to bear him out to sufficient depths 

 to reach his prey; and the length of his many jointed, sinu- 

 ous neck is equal to that of his legs. His eye is keen, his 

 wings are immense, and his body, as compared with the 

 size of his members, is astonishingly small. The toes, the 

 outer one of which is considerably palmated, are long 

 enough to support so light a body on the mire and the soft 

 ooze. The structure of the foot is strictly that of the 

 perching bird, and so accustomed are these birds to stand- 

 ing on one foot, with the other drawn up into the feathers, 

 that the one foot is often much larger than the other. The 

 beak, cleft as far as the eyes, opens a gullet sufficiently 

 large to admit a fair-sized fish. The patch of naked skin, 

 including the eyes, extends to the base of the bill. The 

 plumage is of a loose, crape-like structure; and there are 

 long, pointed and pendent feathers about the low^er neck 

 and breast, also, in most cases, on the back. Moreover, this 

 class of birds has tw^o curious items of structure as yet 

 wholly unexplained — the pectinated or comb-shaped inside 

 edge of the middle claw^, and the thickened, yellow, hair- 

 like appendages, or powder-down, on the breast. Some 

 have affirmed that the latter is phosphorescent, and so affords 

 a luminous attraction for fishes at night. 



These birds frequent shallow streams, flats, swamps and 

 marshes, generally building platform nests, of sticks and 

 other coarse materials, for the most part in trees, and gen- 

 erally breeding in communities; the flat nests being neces- 

 sary to accommodate the long legs of the parent bird w^hile 



