GREAT WHITE HERON. 457 



saw a few at Erzeroom, about the river, from the beginning- 

 of May till October, sometimes in Flocks, and sometimes 

 solitary ; and the Russian Naturalists found this bird in the 

 spring on the borders of the salt lakes at Bakou. Large 

 White Herons, brought from India by Colonel Sykes and 

 Major Franklin were considered to be of the same species as 

 the European bird, although a little smaller in size. It feeds 

 on small fish, reptiles, mollusca, and aquatic insects, and 

 breeds on the ground among reeds and herbage, producing 

 four or five large bluish green eggs. 



Adult birds have the beak yellow at the base, black to- 

 wards the point ; the lore and bare space round the eye, pale 

 green ; irides yellow ; the whole plumage Avhite ; the feathers 

 of the back of the head, and bottom of the neck in front, 

 elongated ; the interscapulars and dorsal feathers very much 

 elongated and filamentous ; legs, toes, and claws, almost 

 black. 



Adult males and females are alike in plumage. 



The whole length from the point of the beak to the end 

 of the tail exceeds three feet by a few inches. From the eye 

 to the end of the beak, four inches seven-eighths ; bare part 

 of the tibia three inches and a half; length of the tarsus six 

 inches and a half ; middle toe and claw four inches and one 

 quarter. 



Young birds do not acquire the elongated feathers during 

 their first or second year. 



Since the preceding portion of this subject was in type, I 

 have been favoured with a communication from T. C. Hey- 

 sham, Esq. of Carlisle, part of which is as follows: — " A 

 friend of mine has just sent me word that a splendid specimen 

 of the Great White Egret was killed a short time ago near 

 the village of Tyninghanie, on the Frith of Forth, about 

 seven miles from Haddington." 



