26 ARDEA HERODIAS. 



GENUS \LV.-ARDEA, LINW*US. 



SUBCENPS I. ARDKA. 



202. ARDKA nSRODlAS, LINK. AND WILSON. GREAT HERO*. 

 WILSON, PLATE LXV. FIG. II. 



THE history of this large and elegant bird having 

 been long involved in error and obscurity,* I have 

 taken more than common pains to present a faithful 

 description of it, and every fact and authentic parti- 

 cular relative to its manners, which may be necessary 

 to the elucidation of the subject. 



The great heron is a constant inhabitant of the 

 Atlantic coast, from New York to Florida ; in deep 

 snows and severe weather seeking the open springs 

 of the cedar and cypress swamps, and the muddy inleta 

 occasionally covered by the tides. On the higher inland 

 parts of the country, beyond the mountains, they are 

 less numerous ; and one which was shot in the upper 

 parts of New Hampshire, was described to me as a great 

 curiosity. Many of their breeding places occur in both 

 Carolinas, chiefly in the vicinity of the sea. In the 

 lower parts of New Jersey, they have also their favourite 

 places for building, and rearing their young. These 

 are generally in the gloomy solitudes of the tallest cclar 

 swamps, where, if unmolested, they continue annually 

 to breed for many years. These swamps an' from half 

 a mile to a mile in breadth, and sometimes five or six 

 in length, and appear as if they occupied the former 

 channel of some choked up river, stream, lake, or arm 



* Latham says of this species, that " all the upper parts of the 

 body, the belly, tail, and legs, are brown ;" and this description has 

 been repeated by every subsequent compiler. Buffon, with his 

 usual eloquent absurdity, describes the heron as " exhibiting the 

 picture of wretchedness, anxiety, and indigence ; condemned to 

 struggle perpetually with misery and want ; sickened with the 

 restless cravings of a famished appetite ;" a description so ridi- 

 culously untrue, that, were it possible for these birds to comprehend 

 it, it would excite the risibility of the whole tribe. 



