LITTLE EGRET HERON. 
o46 
This curious bird is two feet in length : the 
whole of its plumage is of a pure white : with a 
strong crest composed of disunited feathers on the 
occiput, a tuft of similar feathers at the base of 
the neck, and many long ones on the top of the 
back, with slender shafts, twisted and bent down 
towards their tips ; these feathers are six or eight 
inches in length, and have slender, silky, wedge- 
shaped webs : the beak is black : the naked space 
round the eyes greenish : the irides of a bright 
yellow : the legs dusky green : the toes of a yellow- 
green. The young and the old in the moulting 
season want the long, slender feathers on the head, 
the base of the neck, and on the back ; and the 
yearlings are dull white, with the beak, the naked 
skin round the eyes, and the feet, black. 
This elegant species is very abundant in the 
southern parts of Europe, especially in Turkey, 
the Archipelago, and Sicily: it sometimes migrates 
into France and Switzerland, but rarely into Ger- 
many. It is stated to have been extremely common 
in England in former times, and that Archbishop 
Nevil had one thousand served up at his famous 
feast. It is now extinct with us ; the last specimen 
on record was one shot in the isle of Anglesea, 
mentioned in the British Zoology. In Asia it is 
very numerous, and it also occurs in Africa, and 
the temperate and warmer parts of America. It 
frequents marshes and rivers, feeding upon fish, 
&c. : it lays four or five white eggs. 
