32 AHDEA ALBA. 



plumes of the breast and back ; and have the body, wok, 

 and lesser coverts of the wings, considerably ti. 

 with ferruginous. 



On dissection, the gullet was found of groat width, 

 from the month to the stomach, which has not the two 

 strong muscular coats that form the gizzard of * 

 birds ; it was more loose, of considerable and uniform 

 thickness throughout, and capable of containing nearly 

 a pint; it was entirely filled with fish, among which 

 were some small eels, all placed head downwards ; the 

 intestines measured nine feet in length, were scarcely 

 as thick as a goose-quill, and incapable of being dis- 

 tended ; so that the vulgar story of the heron swallowing 

 eels, which, passing suddenly through him, are repeatedly 

 swallowed, is absurd and impossible. On the external 

 coat of the stomach of one of these birds, opened soon 

 after being shot, something like a blood-vessel lay in 

 several meandering folds, enveloped in a membrane, and 

 closely adhering to the surface. On carefully opening 

 this membrane, it was found to contain a large, round, 

 living worm, eight inches in length ; another, of like 

 length, was found coiled, in the same manner, on another 

 part of the external coat. It may also be worthy of 

 notice, that the intestines of the young birds of the 

 first season, killed in the month of October, when they 

 were nearly as large as the others, measured only six 

 feet four or five inches; those of the full grown ones, 

 from eight to nine feet in length. 



203. ARDEA ALBA, LINK^US. ARDEA EGBETTA, WILSON. 



GREAT WHITE HKROX. 

 WILSON, PLATE LXI. FIG. IV. 



THIS tall and elegant bird, though often seen, during 

 the summer, in our low marshes and inundated meadou *, 

 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 Isevr 



