18 GRALLATORES. ARDEA. HERON. 



tinged with reddish-brown. The neck is pale reddish- 

 brown, without the black lists. The front of the neck 

 is yellowish- white, with longitudinal black spots. The 

 back, scapulars, wings, and tail deep-grey ; the feathers 

 margined with reddish-brown. The belly and thighs are 

 reddish- white. The upper mandible is blackish-brown ; 

 the under one, the lores, and eyes, are pale yellow. 

 As the young bird advances towards maturity, the tints 

 become purer in colour, and it approaches, by degrees, 

 to the fine plumage that distinguishes the adult. 



GREAT WHITE HERON. 



ARDEA ALBA, Linn. 

 PLATE IV. 



Ardea alba, Linn. Syst. 1. 239. 24 Gmel Syst. 1. 639 Lath. Ind. Orn. 



2. 695. 65. Wagler, Syst. Av. 1. sp. 8. 

 Ardea Candida, Briss. 5. 428. 15. 

 Ardea alba major, Rail Syn. p. 99. A. 4. 

 Ardea Egrettoides, Gmel. Reise, 2. 193. t. 25. 

 Heron Aigrette, Temm. Man. d'Ornith. 2. 672, but not all the synonyms 



quoted. 



Le Heron blanc, Buff. Ois. 7. 365. 

 Great White Heron, Br. Zool. 2. 1?5. t. 62. Will (Angl.) 279. t. 49 



Lath. Syn. 5. 91. 60 Mont. Ornith. Diet. 1 Id. Sup. 

 Ardea Egretta, Steph. Shaw's Zool. 11. 543. The American White Heron, 



or true Ardea Egretta, and Ardea alba, are here confounded together, 



and given as the same species. 



THE claim of this Heron to the title of a British bird, 

 even as a rare visitant, appears doubtful, and to rest upon 

 vague testimony. WILLOUGHBY, whose description possesses 

 all the accuracy and minuteness of a personal examination, 

 does not state how or where the specimen was obtained, nor 

 does he even speak of it as a bird that he had himself 

 ever seen in England. Towards the conclusion of his ob- 

 servations, however, he quotes, upon the authority of AL- 

 DROVANDUS, that " a certain Englishman affirmed that he 

 had seen White Herons, though but rarely, which neither, in 

 bigness of body, nor shape, differed at all from the Common 

 Heron ;" and then he farther adds, that a Mr JOHNSON, who 



