ARDEIDJ'] — THE IIKROXS — GAHZETTA. 



27 



same pair. When the nest is on a tall tree, the young remain in it or on the branches 

 until they are able to Hy ; but when it is near the water or ground, they leave much 



sooner. 



The number of eggs in a nest in Florida, iiceording to Audubon, is invariably 

 three. According to Wilson, in New Jersey the number is four or five. Audubon 

 (fives their size as two and a (quarter inches in length and one and five eighths in 

 hii'iulth, and their cohn- a [)ale blue, which soon fades. Two eggs in my collection, 

 olitaiued in Florida by Dr. Hryant, measure, oiu- i;..'5() x l.'>'2 inches; the other 2.28 

 X 1.00 inches. They are oval in .shape, nearly equal at either end, and their color is 

 that uniform unspotted washing or faint shading of greenish Prussian blue, common 

 to all our herons, the two bitterns alone excej)ted. 



Genis GARZETTA, Kaup. 



Ganctta, Kaup, Nat. Syst. Eur. Tliicrw. 18ai», 7t). Bonap. C'onap. II. 1855, 118 (type, Ardea 

 (jarzctta, Li.VN.). 



GrEN. Char. .Small wliitc Herons, crested nt all ages and seasons, and in the nuptial season 

 iulnrned with jugular and dorsal plinucs. Bill slender, very little compressed, the culnien decidedly 

 liut ascending ; the lower edge of the mandibular rami straight or appreciahly concave. Mental 

 curved for the terminal halt', somewhat depressed for the basal half; the gonys nearly straight, 



O. candidiasima. 



apices falling far short of reaching half-wi 

 malar apices reaching just as far as the fr 

 the nostrils. Toes short, the middle one 

 about one half iti< length ; bare portion of 

 scutelloe as in Ilerndias. 



Nuptial pbuiics adorning the occiput, 

 of similar structure, having decomposed \vi 

 (uid jugulum narrow and with compact w 

 beyond the tail, and strongly recurved at e; 



ly from the middle of the eye to the point of the bill ; 

 tntal apices, and falling far short of the posterior end of 

 but little more than one half the tarsus, the hallux 

 tibia nearly three fourths as long as the tarsus. Tarsal 



jugulum, and back ; these, in the American species, all 

 obs ; but in the Old World species, those of the occiput 

 ebs. Doi-sal plumes (in all species) reaching but little 

 lids. 



