GREAT WHITE HERON. 527 
The birds also breed, in great numbers, in the neighborhood of New 
Orleans ; for, being in that city in the month of June, I frequently 
observed the Indians sitting in market with the dead and living young 
birds for sale; also numbers of Gray Owls (strix nebulosa) and the 
White Ibis, (¢antalus albus,) for which nice dainties I observed they 
generally found purchasers. 
The food of the Night Heron, or Qua-Bird, is chiefly composed of 
small fish, which it takes by night. Those that I opened had a large 
expansion of the gullet, immediately under the bill, that narrowed 
from thence to the stomach, which is a large, oblong pouch, and was 
filled with fish. The teeth of the pectinated claw were thirty-five or 
forty in number, and, as they contained particles of the down of the 
bird, showed evidently, from this circumstance, that they act the part 
of a comb to rid the bird of vermin in those parts which it cannot 
reach with its bill. 
GREAT WHITE HERON.— ARDEA EGRETTA.— Fic. 247. 
Peale’s Museum, No. 3754; Young, No. 3755. 
EGRETTA LEUCE.—Jaxvine.* 
Ardea leuce, Hig. — Ardea alba, Bonap. ynerp 304.— Ardea egretta, Wagl. 
Syst. Av. No. 7.— Bonap. monog. del gruppo Egretta, osserv. sulla, 2d edit. del 
reg. anim. Cuv. 
Tnis tall and elegant bird, though often seen, during the summer, 
in our low marshes and inundated meadows, yet, on account of its ex- 
treme vigilance and watchful timidity, is very. difficult to be procured. 
Its principal residence is in the regions of the south, being found from 
Guiana, and probably beyond the line, to New York. It enters the 
territories of the, United States late in February: this I conjecture 
* Among no birds has there occurred so much confusion ‘as among the White 
Herons, or those more particularly forming the division Egretts. They are dis- 
tributed over every country of the world; are not very different in size ; the young 
are chiefly distinguished by the want of the crest, and are, in many instances, of a 
plumage similar to the full winter dress; most of the species, when mature, are 
clothed in a garb of the purest white. 
The bird with which our present species is more immediately connected is the Ar- 
dea alba, Gimel.,a European bird, confounded with the young of A. egretta, and not 
yet, I believe, found in North America. The chief differences are presence of the 
crest, and much longer proportion of the legs. A. exretta seems to range exten- 
sively over the continents of America, and some of the islands; IT am not aware of 
its being found elsewhere; and the African, Asiatic, and New Holland allied 
species will, I suspect, tun out distinct, and most probably belong to their re- 
spective countries. ; 
To the North American egretéa must be added the Ardea Pealii, discovered by 
Bonaparte. It is distinguished from its allies by the flesh color of the till is much 
smaller than A. alba; differs from A. warzetta by jls large, compouna crest, and 
from A. candissima by the quality and texture of the ornamental feathers. — ED. 
