EGRET HERON. Class II. 



tail is twenty-four inches, to that of the legs 

 thirty-two; the bill is slender and black; the 

 space about the eyes naked and green; the 

 irides of a pale yellow ; the head adorned with 

 a beautiful crest, composed of some short, and 

 of two long feathers, hanging backward ; these 

 are upwards of four inches in length; the 

 whole plumage is of a resplendent w^hiteness ; 

 the feathers on the breast, and the scapulars, 

 are very delicate, long, slender, and unweb- 

 bed, hanging in the lightest and loosest man- 

 ner ; the legs are of a dark green color almost 

 black. The scapulars and the crest were for- 

 merly much esteemed as ornaments for caps 

 and head-pieces ; so that aigrette and egrtt 

 came to signify any ornament to a cap, though 

 originally the word was derived from aigre^ a 

 cause de Vaigreur de sa voh\* 



We never met with this bird or the crane in 

 England, but formed our descriptions from spe- 

 cimens in the elegant cabinet of Doctor Mau- 

 duit in Paris. 



* Belon av. I95. 



