HERO N. 



731 



whole heron family. They are particularly hand- 

 some ; and they are social and gentle in their man- 

 ners, associating midily with other birds, and capable 

 of being tamed without any great difficulty. Their 

 plumes were once in high demand for adorning the 

 helmets of the mailed warriors of the middle ages ; 

 and they are still used for decorating the head-dresses 

 of ladies, and the turbans of persons of rank in the 

 East. 



In England these birds are now exceedingly rare, 

 though one was found in South Devon in the early 

 part of the present century. It was a female, sup- 

 posed to be a young bird of the first year, but all pure 

 white, with the exception of the crown of the head 

 and the upper part of the neck in front, which were 

 buff-c*oloured. Some idea may be formed of their 

 abundance in times gone by, from the fact, that a 

 thousand of them were served up at the grand feast 

 given by Archbishop Neville, though at present it 

 would puzzle all the bishops of England to collect a 

 dozen in the whole country during a century. (The 

 following quotation from Wilson will enable those 

 who take an interest in these very handsome birds, to 

 compare the American one with the eastern, to which 

 latter our observations have been chiefly applicable. 

 " On the 19th of May," says he," I visited an exten- 

 sive breeding-place of the snowy heron, among the 

 red cedars of Summer's 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 so 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-brue colour, 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, and found to be well-tasted ; the white 

 was of a bluish tint, and almost transparent, though 

 boiled for a considerable time ; the yolk very small 

 in quantity. The birds rose in vast numbers, but 

 without clamour, alighting on the tops of the trees 

 around, and watching the result in silent anxiety. 

 Among them were numbers of the night heron, and 

 two or three purple-headed herons. Grerft quantities 

 of egg-shells lay scattered under the trees, occasioned 

 by the depredations of the crows, who were continu- 

 ally hovering about the place. On one of the nests 

 I found the dead body of the bird itself, half-devoured 

 by the hawks, crows, or gulls. She had probably 

 perished in defence of her eggs. The snowy heron 

 is seen at all times during summer among the salt 

 marshes, watching and searching for food, or passing, 

 sometimes in flocks, from one part of the bay to the 

 other. They often make excursions up the rivers and 

 inlets, but return regularly in the evening to the red 

 cedars on the beach to roost. I found these birds on 

 the Mississipi early in June, as far up as Fort Adams, 

 roaming about among the creeks and inundated woods. 

 The length of this species is two feet one inch : ex- 

 tent, three feet two inches ! the bill is four inches 

 and a quarter long, and grooved ; the space from the 

 nostril to the eye orange yellow, the rest of the bill 

 black ; irides vivid orange ; the whole plumage is of 

 a snowy whiteness ; the head is largely crested with 

 loose unwebbed feathers, nearly four inches in length ; 

 another tuft of the same nearly covers the breast ; 

 but the most distinguished ornament of this bird is a 



bunch of long silky plumes, proceeding from the 

 shoulders, covering the whole back, and extending 

 beyond the tail ; the shafts of these are six or seven 

 inches long, extremely elastic, tapering to the extre- 

 mities, and thinly set with long, slender, bending 

 threads or fibres, easily agitated by the slightest mo- 

 tion of the air ; these shafts curl upwards at the ends. 

 When the bird is irritated, and erects these airy 

 plumes, they have a very elegant appearance. The 

 legs and naked part of the thighs are black ; the feet, 

 bright yellow ; claws black, the middle one pecti- 

 nated." 



CRESTED PURPLE HERON (A. purpured). This 

 species appears to be wholly confined to the eastern 

 continent, and to belong to the south-eastern migra- 

 tion. It is very common in the marshy places of 

 Eastern Europe and Western Asia, in the north of 

 Africa, and in the islands of the Mediterranean. It 

 is not, however, mentioned as occurring even as a 

 migrant in the peninsular part of India. In the west 

 of Europe it is rare, and in the British islands it 

 appears only as a very rare straggler. It is a marsh 

 bird, building in tall reeds and other aquatic plants, 

 and rarely perching on trees. The hatch consists of 

 three eggs of a greenish ash colour, and without any 

 gloss or lustre. 



Crested Heron. 



This is a very beautiful bird, and one of considerable 

 size, the length, when full grown, being about three 

 feet, and the stretch of the wings not less than four. 

 The mature birds have a crest of long and slender 

 feathers on the hind head, which are of a greenish 

 black colour. At the lower part of the neck there 

 are similar feathers of whitish purple ; and the 

 feathers on the scapulars and upper part of the back 

 are also slender and produced, but they are bright 

 purple. The top of the head is black, with bright 

 green reflections ; the throat white ; the sides of the 

 neck bright russet; there are three longitudinal 

 stripes of black on the neck, one on each side from 

 the eye downwards, and the third behind, but not 

 extending to the lower part of the neck ; the lower 

 neck is mottled with longitudinal spots of russet, 

 purple, and black ; the back, the wings, and the tail 

 are reddish ash, with purple reflections ; the thigh* 



