ORDER GRALL/E. 483 



since they depart and return in the different seasons and at 

 undetermined periods, according to the temporary abundance 

 or lack of food, and they can equally support the extremes 

 of cold and heat. On this point, however, M. Temminck 

 does not agree with Mauduyt, the herons, according to him, 

 being birds of periodical passage, and emigrating in large 

 flocks. The great majority of them make their nests on ele- 

 vated trees, at no great distance from rivers, in which the 

 young are reared until they are in a state to fly. In their 

 flight, which is very elevated, the neck is folded, and the 

 head rests against the upper part of the back. Almost all of 

 them are semi-nocturnal, or crepusculous birds. 



According to M. Temminck, in all the species four spaces 

 are observable, furnished with a cottony kind of down, and 

 the movdting takes place but once a year. The long feathers 

 with divided barbs, with which some species are ornamented 

 on the back, do not re-appear so quickly as the others, and 

 these species are deprived of them during a part of the 

 winter. The young also acquire very tardily their tufts and 

 other accessory ornaments. No very obvious differences 

 have, as yet, been remarked between the sexes. 



The numerous family of the herons has been divided by 

 Buffon into four sections : — The Herons Proper and the Egrets, 

 whose characters are a very long neck, and very slender, 

 narrow, and lean body, for the most part, raised on long legs. 

 The Bitterns, in which red with spots is the predominating 

 colour, the body thicker, the legs less long, and the neck 

 shorter, and so furnished with feathers as to appear very 

 thick in comparison with that of the first divisions. The Night 

 Herons {Bihoreaux), in which the neck is shorter than that 

 of the bitterns, and whose size is less, and which have two or 

 three long feathery sprigs implanted in the nape, and a slight 

 curve of the upper mandible. And, finally, the Crab-eaters, 



1 i2 



