140 THE REDDISH EGRET. 



ones enough to load your schooner. I can take you straight to their breed- 

 ing place." 



You may suppose, reader, how my spirits were raised by this intelligence, 

 and how surprised I was that Peale's Egret was not in the number of the 

 Florida Herons. We speedily embarked in Mr. Thruston's boat, spread 

 our sails to the breeze, and passed several keys, on which we procured two 

 young birds of the large white species, which I saw at once was unknown 

 to me. As we approached the next island, I saw twenty or thirty pairs of 

 Herons, some of which were pure white, others of a light blue colour, but 

 so much larger than the Blue Heron, Jirdea cczrulea, that I asked the pilot 

 what they were, when he answered, "the very fellows I want to shew you, 

 and you may soon see them close enough, as you and I will shoot a few by 

 way of amusement." Before half an hour had elapsed, more than a dozen 

 were lying at my feet. Some of them were as white as driven snow, the 

 rest of a delicate purplish tint, inclining to grey on the back and wings, 

 with heads and necks of a curious reddish colour. Males and females there 

 were, but they were all of one species, for my companion assured me that 

 "this sort bred before they turned to their natural colours," by which he 

 meant before attaining their full plumage at the age of three years. Well, 

 the immature birds were the very same as the individual to which, as the 

 representative of a new species, the name of Peale's Egret had been given. 

 This I saw at once, for so good is the representation of it in the fourth 

 volume of Bonaparte's American Ornithology, that from the mere recol- 

 lection of it I was enabled to recognise the bird at once. You may imagine 

 the pleasure I felt, as well as that which I experienced on becoming better 

 acquainted with this .species, which I found in many places both with eggs 

 and with young. 



The Reddish Egret is a constant resident on the Florida Keys, to which 

 it is so partial at all seasons that it never leaves them. Some individuals are 

 seen as far east as Cape Florida, and westward along the Gulf of Mexico. 

 Whether it may ever betake itself to fresh water I cannot say, but I never 

 found one in such a situation. It is a more plump bird for its size than most 

 other Herons, and in this respect resembles the Night Heron and the Yellow- 

 crowned species, but possesses all the gracefulness of the tribe to which it 

 belongs. In walking it lifts its feet high, and proceeds at a quiet pace, but 

 sometimes briskly; it alights with ease on trees, and walks well on the 

 larger branches. It rarely feeds from the edges of the water, but resorts to 

 the shallows of the extensive mud or sand flats, so numerous about the keys. 

 There, twenty or thirty, sometimes as many as a hundred, may be seen 

 wading up to the heel (or knee-joint as it is usually called) in pursuit of 

 prey, or standing in silence awaiting the approach of an animal on which it 



