22 
EGRET HERON. Crass II. 
tail is twenty-four inches, to that of the legs 
thirty-two; the bill is slender and black; the 
space about the eyes naked and green; the 
irides of a pale yellow; the head adorned with 
a beautiful crest, composed of some short, and 
of two long feathers, hanging backward; these 
are upwards of four inches in length; the 
whole plumage is of a resplendent whiteness ; 
the feathers on the breast, and the scapulars, 
are very delicate, long, slender, and unweb- 
bed, hanging in the lightest and loosest man- 
ner; the legs are of a dark green color almost 
black. The scapulars and the crest were for- 
merly much esteemed as ornaments for caps 
and head-pieces; so that aigrette and egret 
came to signify any ornament to a cap, though - 
originally the word was derived from aigre, @ 
cause de laigreur de sa voww.* 
We never met with this bird or the crane in 
England, but formed our descriptions from spe- 
cimens in the elegant cabinet of Doctor AZau- 
duit in Paris. | 
* Belon av. 195. 
