492 PEALE'S EGRET HERON. 
and security. Several of these retreats are celebrated both 
in America and Europe. The naturalist whose courage and 
perseverance enable him to penetrate the swamps, and a 
thousand difficulties that surround one of these recesses, and 
_ render them nearly inaccessible, is amply repaid by the aston- 
ishing spectacle he witnesses. He finds every branch, every 
fork, the top of every bush, covered with the nests of these 
birds; and the ear is stunned with the cries and flapping 
of the wings of the alarmed multitude. The parents, and 
such of the young as can fly, at once depart, their numbers 
obscuring the sky: but their attachment for their offspring 
overcoming their fears, the parents soon return to their defence, 
and boldly attack any enemy, so that even the blows of sticks 
or the report of the fatal gun has no terror for them. ‘Their 
nests are made with sticks, and lined with wool ; but if they 
find a nest already made, they do not take the pains to build 
anew one. Their young are as voracious and hard to satisfy 
as themselves. 
The egret herons are entirely of a snowy whiteness, without 
any coloured markings on the plumage whatever. We even ex- 
clude from them the Ardea russata, that visits occasionally the 
south of Europe, and possesses when adult in the greatest degree 
the long flowing ornamental plumes. This, with the Rallocdes 
speciosa of Java, &c., we consider as forming a group equivalent 
in rank to egret, and we apply to it Boie’s name of Buphus. 
Our second subgenus, Botaurus, including the bittern, night 
herons, and other groups of authors, is characterised by the 
bill being hardly longer than the head, much compressed, higher 
than broad, with the upper mandible somewhat curved. Their 
legs are comparatively short, and the naked space on the 
tibia restricted: the neck is rather short, thickly and closely 
covered with long, broad, and loose erectile feathers, and merely 
downy above: their body is comparatively plump, even fleshy, 
and sometimes good eating. They are chiefly nocturnal, and 
haunt in marshy and sedgy places. Their food is principally 
reptiles, insects, worms, fish-spawn, and they even eat vege- 
