Species IX. ARDEA CANDWISSIMA. 



SNOWY HERON.* 



[Plate LXII. Fig. 4.] 



Tdrt. Syst. p. 380.— Lath. Syn. m., p. 92, No. 61. 



This elegant species inhabits the seacoast of North America, from 

 the Isthmus of Darien to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and is, in the 

 United States, a bird of passage ; arriving from the south early in 

 April, and leaving the Middle States again in October. Its general 

 appearance, resembling so much that of the Little Egret of Europe, 

 has, I doubt not, imposed on some of the naturalists of that country, 

 as I confess it did on me.f From a more careful comparison, however, 

 of both birds, I am satisfied that they are two entirely different and 

 distinct species. These differences consist in the large flowing crest, 

 yellow feet, and singularly curled plumes of the back of the present ; 

 it is also nearly double the size of the European species. 



The Snowy Heron seems particularly fond of the salt marshes during 

 summer ; seldom penetrating far inland. Its white plumage renders it 

 a very conspicuous object, either while on wing, or while wading the 

 meadows or marshes. Its food consists of those small crabs, usually 

 called fiddlers, mud worms, snails, frogs and lizards. It also feeds on 

 the seeds of some species of nymphae, and of several other aquatic 

 plants. 



On the nineteenth of May, I visited an extensive breeding place of 

 the Snowy Heron, among the red cedars of Sommers' Beach, on the 

 coast of Cape May. The situation was very sequestered, bounded on 

 the land side by a fresh water marsh or pond, and sheltered from the 

 Atlantic by ranges of sand hills. The cedars, though not high, were 

 80 closely crowded together, as to render it difficult to penetrate through 

 among them. Some trees contained three, others four, nests, built 

 wholly of sticks. Each had in it three eggs of a pale greenish blue 

 color, and measuring an inch and three quarters in length, by an inch 

 and a quarter in thickness. Forty or fifty of these 'eggs were cooked, 



* Named in the plate, by mistake, the Little Egret. 



t "On the American continent, the Little Egret is met with at New York and 

 Long Island." Lath, hi., p. 90. 



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