378 PEALE'S EGRET HERON. 



In size, this species comes nearest Qharadrius curonicus (minor) of 

 Europe, but in color and all else most resembles 0. hiaticula. 



On the coasts of New Jersey, this species arrives late in April, keep- 

 ing then in flocks, and until late in May, when they depart in search of 

 more northern climes. No instance is known of their breeding in the 

 United States, but their flocks reappear periodically in September, pro- 

 tracting their stay till the last of October. They run with rapidity, 

 uttering a rather hissing short note, resembling the syllable thyh, thyk. 

 It is a remarkable fact that these closely related species of Ring- 

 Plovers, hardly cognisable at a distance by the eye, are at once detected 

 by a practised ear, their note being so very difi"erent. For who could 

 mistake the hissing voice of the present for the soft and musical tones 

 of the Piping species, so happily compared by Wilson to a German 

 flute ? It is equally well known that the species of Europe difier also in 

 this respect from each other, the true hiaticula having very nearly the 

 same hissing voice as the Semipalmated, whilst the curoniaus has a very 

 melancholy cry, resembling hirw ! hirw ! 



ARDEA PEALII. 



PEALE'S EGRET HERON. 



[Plate XXVI. Fig. 1.] 



Ardea Pealii, Nob. in Ann. Lye. New York, ii., p. 155. l-D.^Cai. Birds IT. S. in 

 Oonir. Mad. lye. Id. Syn. Birds U. S. 



Among the numerous and still badly known tribes of Herons — a 

 genus which even as reduced according to the sounder views of modern 

 authors, yet consists of about fifty species, spread pretty nearly in equal 

 numbers over all parts of the world — a small group has been distin- 

 guished in common language before it was recognised by naturalists, 

 under the name of Egret, and it may be admitted into the system as a 

 secondary division of the subgenus Ardea, as this is distinguished from 

 Botaurus, Nyctieorax, &c. Their elegance of shape, long and slender 

 bill, but especially their snowy whiteness, and the flowing train of plumes 

 by which they are adorned in a perfect state, make them easily cognisa- 

 ble even at a distance, and seem fully to entitle them to such a distinc- 

 tion. But this very similarity, as one may well imagine, renders the 

 several species, for there are several of them, liable to be easily con- 

 founded together. Besides their remarkable similarity of form, colors 

 are wanting to discriminate them ; and we are reduced to those exhibited 

 by the bills, lora and feet, to the proportions of the bird and its respec- 



