88 GREAT WHITE HERON. 



repaired year after year, by the same pair. Low marshy 

 places, covered with trees, by the sides of ponds, lakes, and 

 swamps, are those appropriated to nidification, and sometimes 

 flat islands at a distance from the main land. 



The male bird feeds the female while she is engaged in 

 sitting; and when the young are hatched both parents unite 

 in supplying their wants. 



The eggs are three in number, and of a pale bluish green 

 colour. 



Male; length, three feet and about four or five or six 

 inches; bill, yellow at the base, blackish brown towards the 

 tip; iris, orange yellow, round it the bare space is pale 

 green. The feathers at the occiput are rather elongated and 

 thick. Head, crown, neck, nape, chin, throat, breast, back, 

 wings, greater and lesser wing coverts, primaries, secondaries, 

 tertiaries, greater and lesser under wing coverts, tail, and 

 upper tail coverts, which are long, loose, and pendant, 

 white. These feathers, continued down from the upper part 

 of the back, were formerly in great request as plumes for 

 head-dress, and are still much worn by the Turks, and other 

 eastern nations, for that purpose. Legs, toes, and claws, 

 almost black, the former tinged transparently with pale 

 yellowish. 



The female is like the male. 



The young do not acquire the elongated feathers on the 

 back of the head, and the lower part of the front of the 

 neck, until the third year. Bill, blackish green, tinged with 

 yellow; legs, greenish black. 



