PEALE’S EGRET HERON. 487 
group. In order to comprehend all these forms of bills, it 
becomes necessary to restrict greatly the physical characters 
of the family, and we can merely observe, that in the Ardeide 
the bill, whatever be its form, is longer than the head, very 
robust, and almost always sharp, with cutting edges. The 
neck is long, the feet long, and always four-toed, the hind 
toe strong and well developed: the tarsus is longer than the 
middle toe, and toes and nails both are also long ; the wings 
are of moderate length, and obtuse: the tail is never long, 
nor otherwise remarkable, and consists of twelve, or only of 
ten feathers. 
There is no marked external difference between the sexes, 
but the young vary greatly from the adults, and do not gain 
their complete plumage till their third year. 
In habits and internal conformation these birds are all 
much more alike than in external. They have all a grave, 
deliberate, and well-poised gait: their flight is slow, though 
light and elevated, and they stretch back their legs like sticks 
in flying, even more so than other waders. They are faithfully 
monogamous in their loves: their nests are built with more 
art than those of aquatic birds generally, being placed in trees, 
thickets, aquatic grasses ; and some of the species, half domesti- 
cated, even nestle on housetops: the female incubates, while 
the male merely watches, and supplies her with food. Both 
unite in nursing and rearing their young, which remain in 
the nest until they are full fledged. The flesh of these waders 
is quite unpalatable. 
The genus Ardea, when disembarrassed of the several species 
forced into it by ancient authors, is a very natural one, differ- 
ing from the storks by. having the inner toe cleft, whilst they 
have all the toes semipalmated at base: the storks also have 
the tarsi reticulated, and the middle toe-nail entire, whilst the 
herons have the former scutellated and the latter toothed like 
a saw, to assist in seizing and securing their slippery prey. A 
peculiarity of the herons, in which they not only differ from 
the storks, but from all other birds, is found in their anatomy : 
eo 
