PIED OYSTER-CATCHER. | 543 
‘the borders of the Mississippi, particularly below New Orleans. In 
each of these places it is migratory ; and in the latter, as I have been 
informed, builds. its nest. on trees, amidst the inundated woods. Its 
manners correspond very much with those of the Blue Heron. It is 
quick in all its motions, darting’ about after its prey with surprising 
agility. Small fish, frogs, lizards, tadpoles, and various aquatic in 
sects, constitute its principal food. a ; 
There is a bird described by Latham in his General Synopsis, vol, 
ill. p. 88, called the Demi Egret,* which, from the account there given, 
seems to approach near to the present species. It is said to inhabit 
Cayenne. eens 
Length of the Louisiana Heron, from the point of the bill to the 
extremity of the.tail, twenty-three inches ;-the long, hair-like plumage 
of the rump and lower part of the back extends several inches farther ; 
the bill is remarkably long, measuring full five inches, of a yellowish 
green at the base, black towards the point, and very sharp; irides, 
yellow; chin and throat, white, dotted with ferruginous and some blue ; 
the rest of the neck is of a light, vinous purple, intermixed on the 
lower part next the breast with dark slate colored plumage; the whole 
feathers of the neck are long, narrow, and pointed; head, crested, 
consisting first of a number of long, narrow, purple feathers, and under 
these seven or eight pendent ones, of a pure white, and twice the 
length of the former; upper part of the back and wings, light slate ;. 
lower part of the back and rump, white; but concealed by a mass of 
long, unwebbed, hair-like plurhage, that falls over the tail and tips of 
the wings, extending three inches beyond them; these plumes zre of 
a dirty purplish brown at the base, and lighten towards the extremities 
to a pale cream color; the tail is even at the tip, rather longer than 
the wings, and of a fine slate; the legs and naked thighs, greenish 
yellow; middle, claw, pectinated; whole ‘ower parts, pure white. 
Male and female alike in plumage, both being crested. 
PIED OYSTER-CATCHER. —HAMATOPUS OSTRALEGUS. — 
Fig. 257. 
Arct. Zool. No. 406.— Catesby, i. Ss a 23. — Peale’s Museum, No. 
8. 
HJEMATOPUS PALLIATUS?-- TemMIncr.{ 
Heematopus ostralegus, Bonap. . p. 300.—- Hematopus palliatus? Jard. 
"and Selby, Milust. Orrith. Vol. iii, Plate D> 
THis singular species, although nowhere numerous, inhabits almost 
_ every sea-shore, both on the new and old continent, but is never found 
* See also Buffon, vol. vii. p. 378. 
+ The Oyster-Catchers of Europe and America are said, by Temminck and Bona- 
parte, to be identical. Such also was the opinion of most ornithologists, and my 
own, until a closer comparison o” American specimens with British showed a dis- 
