PEALE’S EGRET HERON. 485 
tioned by D’Azara, and we have ourselves received it from 
Surinam. 
3. The third is Ardea flavirostris, Temm., not yet figured, 
a smaller bird, with black legs also, at once known from its 
two above-mentioned close analogues—from the European by 
its yellow bill, from the American by its small crest. It is 
found in Southern Africa and the Australian islands. 
4, The fourth egret in point of stature is the one we are 
treating of, well distinguished by its bill, which is flesh colour 
at base, besides the different texture of the ornamental feathers. 
As a fifth species, we shall cite the Ardea candidissima of 
Wilson, which is the analogue of the Ardea garzetta of Europe, 
figured by Roux, Orn. Prov. pl. 315. Both these are alike 
in stature and dimensions, and differ only, as is well known, 
by the crest, which in the latter consists of but two or three 
elongated, narrow, subulate feathers ; while in the American 
the crest is formed of numerous elongated pendulous feathers, 
with loose flowing barbs. 
Specimens that we have received from Java, under the name 
of Ardea nigripes, Temm., we consider as the young of A. 
garzetta, and are confirmed in this opinion by the fact of 
young birds that we possess of the American candidissima, 
that stand precisely in the same relation to this species as the 
supposed nigripes does to the garzetta.* 
The family of the Herodi, Cultrirostres, or Ardeida, 
especially when the group Gruine is withdrawn, and restrict- 
ing it to our former Ardeime, isa highly natural one. it 
still comprises, it is true, many aberrant genera, birds of 
peculiar forms, and remarkable for their strange and oddly 
shaped bills, though still not so far different as to rank them 
more properly with any other class, and in their general 
structure, as well as their habits and dispositions, too much 
identified with these to justify their separation into an inde- 
* T have lately been informed of the discovery of two new European 
species of egrets, one from Sardinia, the other from Moldavia, of which 
the names and characters are not yet given. 
