536 SNOWY HE iON 
SNOWY HERON.— ARDEA CANDIDISSIMA. — Fic. 251. 
Lath. Sup. i. p. 230. — No. 3748. 
EGRETTA CANDIDISSIMA.~ Bonaparte.* 
Ardea candidissima, Bonap. Synop. p. 305.— Monog. del gruppo Hgretta. Osserv 
Sulla. 2d edit. del Reg. Anim. Cuv. p. 101.— Wagl. Syst. Avi. No. 11. 
Tus elegant species inhabits the sea-coast of North America, 
from the Isthmus of Darien to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and is, in 
the United States, a bird of passage; arriving from the south early in 
April, and leaving the Middle States again in October. Its general 
appearance, resembling so much that of the Little Egret of Europe, 
has, I doubt not, imposed on some of the naturalists of that country, 
as I confess it did on met From a more careful comparison, howev- 
er, of both birds, I am satisfied that they are two entirely different and 
istinct species. These differences consist in the large, flowing crest, 
yellow feet, and singularly curled plumes of the back of the present; 
it is also nearly double the size of the European species. 
The Snowy Heron seems particularly fond of the salt marshes dur- 
ing summer, seldom penetrating far inland. Its white plumage’ ren- 
ders it a very conspicuous object, either while on wing, or while 
wading the meadows or marshes. Its food consists of those small 
crabs usually called fiddlers, mud worms, snails,'frogs, and lizards. It 
also feeds on the seeds of some species of nymph, and of several 
other aquatic plants. 
On the 19th of May I visited an extensive breeding-place of the 
Snowy Heron, among the red cedars of Summers’s Beach, on the coast 
of Cape May. The situation was very sequestered, bounded on the 
land side by a fresh-water marsh or pond, and sheltered from the At- 
lantic by ranges of sand hills. The cedars, though not high, were so 
closely crowded together as to render it difficult to penetrate throuch 
among them. Some trees contained three, others four nests, built 
wholly of sticks. Each had in it three eggs, of a pale greenish blue 
color, and measuring an inch and three quarters in length, by an inch 
and a quarter in thickness. Forty or fifty of these eggs were cooked, 
* This species has, like the others, been also confounded with a near ally; 
Wagler has unravelled the confusion in his Systema, and the Prince of Musignano 
in his Monograph on this group, as quoted above. ¢T’o make the matter still clear- 
er, I transcribe the Prince’s observations on the Nomenclature of Wilson. “Two 
closely-allied species of small White-crested Herons have much puzzled naturalists, 
who seem to have rivalled each other in confounding them, some by considering 
them as identical, others by making several nominal species, thus’ rendering their 
synonymy almost inextricable. ‘The species are the A. garzetta of Europe, and 
the subject of the present remarks. The latter does not inhabit Europe, but is 
said to be found in Asia (which we are inclined to doubt) as frequently as on this 
continent, where it is widely extended. Wilson is free from all the above-mentioned 
errors, having, as usual, admirably established the species. He was, moreover, 
judicious in his selection of the English and Latin names; and it wae doubtless, 
after a careful investigation, that he selected the name of candidissima, which Mr. 
Ord has changed to A. Carolinensis.” — Ep. ’ 
t “ On the American continent the Little Egret is met with at New York and 
Long Island.” — Latuam, vol. iii. p. 90. : 
