376 ' AVES. 
7 
in the adult maley is changed into a long tuft: inhabits the hot 
and marshy parts of South America. 
Then comes, — 
; ARrbDEA, Cuv. 
Or the Herons, the cleft of whose beak extends to beneath the eyes, 
a small nasal fossa continuing on in a groove close to its point. 
They are also distinguished by the internal edge of the nail of the 
middle toe, which is trenchant and dentigulated. Their legs are 
scutellated; the thumb and toes tolerably long, the external web con- 
siderable, and the eyes placed in a naked skin which extends to the 
beak. Their stomach is a very large, but slightly muscular sac, 
and they have but one very small cecum. They are melancholy 
birds, which build and perch on the banks of rivers, where they de- 
stroy great numbers of fish. ‘There are many species in both conti- 
nents, which can only be divided by a reference to some details of 
plumage. t 
The true Herons have a very slender neck, ornamented below with 
long pendent feathers. 
Ard. major, and Ard. cinerea, L.; Enl. 755 and 787; Frisch, 
198, 199; Naum. Ed. I, 25, f. 38, 34. (The Common Heron.) 
Bluish ash colour;.a black tuft on the occiput; fore-part of the 
neck white, sprinkled with black tears; a large bird, whose 
depredations on the fish, in the rivers of Europe, Heel it 
highly prejudicial. It was formerly much celebrated for ‘the 
sport it afforded to falconers. pee / 4.) 
Ard. purpurea, Enl. 788; Naum. Ed. I, Supp. 45, f. 89, 90.(1) 
(The Purple Heron.) Grey and red, or purple; belongs a also to 
Europe. > i 
The name of Crapraters, (Crabiers,) has been applied to, the, 
smallest Herons, with shorter feet. The species,most common in 
France, aud found in its mountain districts, is, 
Ard. minuta and danubialis, Gm.; Le Blongios; Enl. 3235, 
Frisch, 207; Naum. Ed. I, 28, f. 37. Fawn coloured; calotte, 
back, and quills black. It is hardly larger than a Rallus, and 
frequents the vicinity of ponds. 
(1) The ard. purpurea, purpurata, rufa, Gm., and the africana, Lath., accord- 
ing to Meyer, are mere varieties of the purple Heron. 
Add J. herodias, Gm.; Wils. VIII, Ixy, 2, the young of which is, perhaps, Enl. 
858;—A. cocoi, Lath.; Spix, XC, under the false name of Ard. maquaris jaa. sibila- 
trix, T. Col. 271;—4. ludoviciana, Gm. Enl. 909, from which the 4. virescens does 
not specifically differ;—.2. Nove-Guinz, Lath. Enl. 926, approaches somewhat t 
the 4. scolopacea, Gm. in the beak, 
