494 PEALE’S EGRET HERON. 
into two groups, and made them regular by arranging them 
near the limits of our two subgenera : the larger striated species 
of bitterns have also been called Onorés (Tigrisoma, Sw.) 
A third subgenus, which we first instituted, and called 
Ardeola, contains only three species, the smallest of the tribe, 
and closely allied in form, and even markings: one is the 
European Ardea minuta, the other the American Ardea exilis, 
and the third a still less, the New Holland Ardea pusilla. 
In these, the female differs somewhat from the male, and the 
young are different from both. The bill of these small herons 
is much the same as that of the true heron, being longer than 
the head, higher than broad at base, and with the upper 
mandible nearly straight: the neck likewise is elongated, and 
rather slender; but, as in the bitterns, it is merely downy above, 
and thickly covered on the remaining parts with long, loose, 
broad erectile feathers: the body is slender, and exceedingly 
compressed, like that of the rail, of which they remind one: 
the legs are comparatively short; but what strikes most, as 
a circumstance extraordinary in the waders, their tibiae are 
completely feathered, as in the woodcock and the land birds : 
the membrane that unites the toes is, moreover, simply rudi- 
mental. 
These birds, which are chiefly nocturnal, have much of the 
habits of the rails. ‘They live and propagate in marshy 
erounds, hiding closely amongst the reeds, and running far 
and very fast in them rather than take wing. They feed on 
small fishes, reptiles, spawn, but more especially on water 
insects. 
Returning to our egret, whose claims to be considered new 
have been set forth in the first page of this article, we have to 
state that it is dedicated to Mr Titian Peale, by whom it was 
first shot for us in Florida, as a just compliment to a natur- 
alist to whom American zoology owes so much, and from 
whom so much may still be expected, retaining as he does all 
that zeal for science for which his family has been long con- 
spicuous. 
