SPECIES 4. ARDEA EGRETTtf. 

 GREAT WHITE HERON. 



[Plate LXL Fig. 4.] 

 PEALE'S Museum, No. 3754; Young, 3755.* 



THIS tall and elegant bird, though often seen, during the 

 summer, in our low marshes and inundated meadows; yet, on 

 account of its extreme vigilance, and watchful timidity, is very 

 difficult to be procured. Its principal residence is in the regions 

 of the south, being found from Guiana, and probably beyond 

 the line, to New York. It enters the territories of the United 

 States late in February; this I conjecture from having first met 

 with it in the southern parts of Georgia about that time. The 

 high inland parts of the country it rarely or never visits; its 

 favourite haunts are vast inundated swamps, rice fields, the low 

 marshy shores of rivers, and such like places; where, from its 

 size and colour, it is very conspicuous, even at a great distance. 



The appearance of this bird, during the first season, when it 

 is entirely destitute of the long flowing plumes of the back, is 

 so different from the same bird in its perfect plumage, which it 

 obtains in the third year, that naturalists and others very ge- 

 nerally consider them as two distinct species. The opportuni- 

 ties which I have fortunately had, of observing them, with the 

 train, in various stages of its progress, from its first appearance to 

 its full growth, satisfies me that the Great White Heron with, and 

 that without, the long plumes, are one and the same species, in 

 different periods of age. In the museum of my friend Mr. Peale? 

 there is a specimen of this bird, in which the train is wanting; 



' &dea alba, LINN. Syt. Ed. 10, j>. 144. 



