2 BRITISH BIRDS. WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS. 



The Herodiones are widely distributed over the globe, but only thirteen 

 species are European. Of these, only one now breeds in Britain, while two others 

 have at former periods done so, although they never nest with us now. All the 

 others are more or less frequent visitors to our shores from the Continent, while 

 two are stragglers from across the Atlantic. 



The members of this family are remarkable for having small areas, called 

 " powder-down patches," in various parts of the body, on which there are produced 

 curious masses of soft fluffy yellowish-white or bluish powder instead of feathers. 

 This powder results from the continual breaking up of what should be the main 

 shaft of the feathers proper to that region, into numerous brush-like barbs and 

 barbules, and their disintegration. These patches, which are greasy and show 

 yellow against the skin, feel like chalk or Fuller's earth. 



The species of Ardeida, resident in, or visitors to, this country, at different 

 seasons, have been separated into four genera by small differences. These are 

 Ardea, or True Herons (some of which are known as Egrets) ; Nycticorax, the 

 Night- Herons ; Ardetta, the Little Bitterns ; and Botaurus, the true Bitterns. 



The True Herons (Ardea) have the head completely feathered, the bill serrated, 

 straight, and longer than the head ; twelve tail feathers ; the leg covered in front 

 with broad scales, and with a pectinated claw on the middle toe. They have 

 three pairs of powder-down patches in thick masses one on the lower part of the 

 back, one on the lower belly, and a third on the breast along the merry-thought. 

 Their plumage is soft and loose ; but a tract on each side of the neck, and an 

 area on the lower neck behind are nude. Some species have long plumes on the 

 head, the base of the neck, and on the lower back, or only on some of these 

 regions ; the latter feathers, which are assumed in the breeding season, being the 

 " aigrettes," so coveted by ladies for decorative purposes, and for which so many 

 of the pure white Egrets are, with their young, most cruelly destroyed every year. 



The Night-Herons (Nycticorax) differ from the Ardeas in having large eyes ; 

 a shorter, unserrated but notched beak ; the front and back of the legs protected 

 by broad plates, and long cylindrical plumes descending from the back of the 

 head. The Night-Herons are nearly cosmopolitan. 



The Little Bitterns (Ardetta), the smallest of the Ardeidce, have slender 

 serrated bills and long toes ; but only two pairs of powder-down tracts. The tail 

 contains ten feathers. The coloration of their eggs differs in character from those 

 of the True Bitterns. The plumage is soft, and the neck feathers elongated, but 

 there are no crests, or peculiar plumes, on the head or back. The sexes are 

 differently coloured. 



In the True Bitterns (Botaurus) the plumage is soft, spotted, or streaked, and 



