SPECIES 9. ARDEA CANDIDISSIMA. 

 SNOWY HERON.* 

 [Plate LXII.-Fig. 4.] 



TURT. Syst. p. 380. LATH. Syn. v. 3, p. 92, JVo. 61. PEALE'S 

 Museum, JVo. 3785. 



THIS elegant species inhabits the seacoast of North America, 

 from the isthmus of Darien to the gulf of St. Lawrence, and is, 

 in the United States, a bird of passage; arriving from the south 

 early in April, and leaving the middle states again in October. 

 Its general appearance, resembling so much that of the Little 

 Egret of Europe, has, I doubt not, imposed on some of the na- 

 turalists of that country, as I confess it did on me.t From a 

 more careful comparison, however, of both birds, I am satisfied 

 that they are two entirely different and distinct species. These 

 differences consist in the large flowing crest, yellow feet, and 

 singularly curled plumes of the back of the present; it is also 

 nearly double the size of the European species. 



The Snowy Heron seems particularly fond of the salt marsh- 

 es during summer; seldom penetrating far inland. Its white 

 plumage renders it a very conspicuous object, either while on 

 wing, or while wading the meadows or marshes. Its food con- 

 sists of those small crabs, usually called fiddlers, mud worms, 

 snails, frogs and lizards. It also feeds on the seeds of some spe- 

 cies of nymphae, and of several other aquatic plants. 



On the nineteenth of May, I visited an extensive breeding 

 place of the Snowy Heron, among the red cedars of Sommer's 

 beach, on the coast of Cape May. The situation was very seques- 

 tered, bounded on the land side by a fresh water marsh or pond, 



* Named in the plate, by mistake, the Little Egret. 



t " On the American continent, the Little Egret is met with at New York and 

 Long island." Lath, v, 3, p. 90. 



