91 ARDEID.E. 



Republic) Herons are generally very poor, a good-conditioned bird being 

 a very rare exception ; a majority of individuals are much emaciated 

 and infested with intestinal worms ; yet I have never found a bird in- 

 fested with lice, though the Heron would seem a fit subject for them, 

 and in the course of my rambles I have picked up many individuals 

 apparently perishing from inanition. I do not wish to insinuate a 

 belief that this immunity from vermin is due to the pectinated claw ; 

 for though the bird does scratch and clean itself with the claw, it 

 could never rid the entire plumage from vermin by this organ, which is 

 as ill adapted for such a purpose as for " giving a firmer hold on its 

 slippery prey/' 



The Spoonbill has also the serration, and is, unlike the Heron, an 

 active vigorous bird and usually fat ; yet it is much troubled with 

 parasites, and I have found birds too weak to fly and literally swarming 

 with them. 



I merely wish to call the attention of ornithologists to the fact that in 

 the region where 1 have observed Herons they are exempt in a remark- 

 able degree from external parasites. 



Much has also been said about certain patches of dense, clammy, 

 yellowish down under the loose plumage of Herons. These curious 

 appendages may be just as useless to the bird as the tuft of hair on 

 its breast is to the Turkey-cock ; but there are more probabilities the 

 other way, and it may yet be discovered that they are very necessary to 

 its well-being. Perhaps these clammy feathers contain a secretion fatal 

 to the vermin by which birds of sedentary habits are so much afflicted, 

 and from which Herons appear to be so strangely free. They may even 

 be the seat of that mysterious phosphorescent light which some one has 

 affirmed emanates from the Heron's breast when it fishes in the dark, 

 and which serves to attract the fish, or to render them visible to the 

 bird, Naturalists have, I believe, dismissed the subject of this light as 

 a mere fable without any foundation of fact; but real facts regarding 

 habits of animals have not unfrequently been so treated. Mr. Bartlett's 

 interesting observations on the Flamingoes in the Society's Gardens 

 show that the ancient story of the Pelican feeding its young on its own 

 blood is perhaps only a slightly embellished account of a common habit 

 of the bird. 



I have not observed Herons fishing by night very closely, but there 

 is one fact which inclines me to believe it probable that some species 

 might possess the light-emitting power in question. I am convinced 

 that the Ardea cocoi sees as well by day as other diurnal species ; the 

 streams on the level pampas are so muddy that a fish two inches below 

 the surface is invisible to the human eye, yet in these thick waters the 



