FEALE’S EGRET HERON. 495 
We regret not being able to relate any peculiarity in the 
habits of this bird, which besides Florida inhabits other ana- 
logous climates of America. It 1s never seen in the middle 
States, but appears not to be rare in Florida, for since the in- 
dividual first brought by Mr Peale, we have observed it in 
almost all the collections of birds sent from that country. 
Peale’s egret heron is twenty-six inches long; the bill five 
inches, flesh colour for nearly three inches from the base, 
then black to the point ; the lora and naked parts of the face 
are of the same flesh colour, but more delicate: the plumage 
is uniformly, and without exception, snowy white, as in all 
the egrets: the head, nearly from the origin of the bill down 
to the neck, is thickly and densely set with a large crest, 
formed of numerous compact, subulate feathers, more than 
three inches long; a bunch of these feathers, precisely of the 
same texture, and even longer, hangs down from the front part 
of the neck. ‘The structure of these feathers most resembles 
that of the corresponding plumes of the A. garzetta, and is 
totally different from those of the candidissima. The long 
flowing plumes of the back are filiform or criniform rather 
than silky, being by no means delicate, and reach much beyond 
the tail, with their rays quite straight, and rather stiff, and 
by no means curled, nodding, or divaricate, as in the can- 
didissima. The wings are thirteen inches long: the tail is 
four. The legs, including the toes and nails, are all black; 
the toes yellow beneath: the nakedness of the tibia extends 
more than three inches: the tarsus is full six inches long— 
that is, twice as long as the middle toe and nail: the hind toe 
without the nail measures more than an inch. 
The young is distinguished by smaller proportions, a cir- 
cumstance for which this group is more than usually remark- 
able, and by the absence of the ornamental feathers: we have, 
however, always observed, even in very young specimens, the 
tendency of the head-feathers to be long and pointed to a con- 
siderable extent, indicating the future crest. 
