GREAT AV HI TE HERON. 299 



scarcely as thick as a goose-quill, and incapable of being distended ; so 

 that the vulgar story of the Heron swallowing eels which passing sud- 

 denly through him are repeatedly swallowed, is absurd and impossible. 

 On the external coat of the stomach of one of these birds, opened soon 

 after being shot, something like a blood vessel lay in several meandering 

 folds, enveloped in a membrane, and closely adhering to the surface. 

 On carefully opening this membrane it was found to contain a large 

 round living worm, eight inches in length ; another of like length was 

 found coiled in the same manner on another part of the external coat. 

 It may also be Avorthy of notice, that the intestines of the young birds 

 of the first season, killed in the month of October, when they were 

 neaidy as large as the others, measured only six feet four or five inches, 

 those of the full grown ones from eight to nine feet in length. 



Species IV. ARDEA EGRETTA* 



GREAT WHITE HERON. 



[Plate LXI. Fig. 4.] 



This tall and elegant bird, though often seen, during the summer, in 

 our low marshes and inundated meadows ; yet, on account of its ex- 

 treme vigilance, and watchful timidity, is very difficult to be procured. 

 Its principal residence is in the regions of the south, being found from 

 Guiana, and probably beyond the line, to New York. It enters the 

 territories of the United States late in February ; this I conjecture from 

 having first met with it in the southern parts of Georgia about that time. 

 The high inland parts of the country it rarely or never visits; its favor- 

 ite haunts are vast inundated swamps, rice fields, the low marshy shores 

 of rivers, and such like places ; where, from its size and color, it is very 

 conspicuous, even at a great distance. 



The appearance of this bird, during the first season, when it is 

 entirely destitute of the long flowing plumes of the back, is so different 

 from the same bird in its perfect plumage, which it obtains in the 

 third year, that naturalists and others very generally consider them as 

 two distinct species. The opportunities which I have fortunately had, 

 of observing them, with the train, in various stages of its progress, from 

 its first appearance to its full growth, satisfies me that the Great White 

 Heron with, and that without, the long plumes, are one and the same 

 species, in different periods of age. In the museum of my friend Mr. 

 Peale, there was a .specimen of this bird, in which the train was wanting ; 



* Ardea alba, Linn. Sijst. Ed. 10, p. 144. 



