HERON. 27 



irides grey ; the crown of the head covered with soft black feathers, 

 like velvet ; on the hind part is a tuft of hair, or rather bristles, 

 rising near each other at the base, and spreading out on all sides in 

 a globular form ; this is four inches in length, and the colour reddish 

 brown ; the sides of the head bare of feathers, being covered only 

 by a fleshy membrane, reddish at the lower part, and in shape not 

 unlike a kidney ; on each side of the throat a kind of wattle; the 

 general colour of the plumage bluish ash ; the feathers on the fore 

 part of the neck very long, and hang over the breast ; wing coverts 

 white, the greater ones incline to rufous, and those farthest from the 

 body to black ; the greater quills and tail black, and the secondaries 

 chestnut; legs, and bare part above the joint, dusky. 



The female is black, where the male is blue ash ; and the wattles 

 on the throat are wanting ; the long feathers of the breast are also 

 less conspicuous.* 



This beautiful bird inhabits Africa, particularly the Coast of 

 Guinea ; common about the whole country of Ardra ; a few at, and 

 about Acra, and several at Whidah ;t found also at Cape Verd, and 

 one or two occasionally seen on the Slave Coast; J supposed to inhabit 

 Andalusia, in Spain, but upon the doubtful testimony of some 

 sportsmen, whom the birds did not suffer to approach near enough to 

 ascertain. |[ 



Why the name of Balearic Crane should have been given to this 

 bird is not well accounted for, as it is certainly not met with in the 

 Islands so called at this day. From its beauty we often meet with it 

 in our Menageries, among other foreign birds, and, with shelter at 

 night, will often live for some years : the chief food is said to be 

 worms, and such other things as the Heron Tribe usually feeds on ; 



* Whether the male has any singularity in the construction of the windpipe we have not 

 been able to investigate ; but are informed by Mr. Thomson, that nothing occurred in a 

 female dissected by him, more than in the Common Heron. 



f Bosnian. J Brought into Europe in the 15th century, at the first 



discovery of Africa. || Mr. White. 



E 2 



