404 GREAT WHITE HERON, 



account of its extreme vigilance and watchful timidity, is 

 very difficult to be procured. Its principal residence is in the 

 regions of the south, being found from Guiana, and probably 

 beyond the line, to New York. It enters the territories of 

 the United States late in February ; this I conjecture from 

 having first met with it in the southern parts of Georgia about 

 that time. The high inland parts of the country it rarely or 

 never visits ; — its favourite haunts are vast inundated swamps, 

 rice- fields, the low marshy shores of rivers, and such like 

 places, where, from its size and colour, it is very conspicuous, 

 even at a great distance. 



The appearance of this bird during the first season, when 

 it is entirely destitute of the long flowing plumes of the back, 

 is so different from the same bird in its perfect plumage, which 

 it obtains in the third year, that naturalists and others very 

 generally consider them as two distinct species. The oppor- 

 tunities which I have fortunately had of observing them with 

 the train in various stages of its progress, from its first appear- 

 ance to its full growth, satisfies me that the great white heron 

 with, and that without, the long plumes, are one and the 

 same species, in different periods of age. In the museum of 

 my friend, Mr Peale, there is a specimen of this bird in 



winter dress : most of the species when mature are clothed in a garb of 

 the purest white. 



The bird with which our present species is more immediately con- 

 nected is the Ardea alba, Gmel., a European bird, confounded with the 

 young of A. egretta, and not yet, I believe, found in North America. 

 The chief differences are presence of the crest, and much longer pro- 

 portion of the legs. A. egretta seems to range extensively over the 

 continents of America and some of the islands ; I am not aware of its 

 being found elsewhere ; and the African, Asiatic, and New Holland 

 allied species will, I suspect, turn out distinct, and most probably 

 belong to their respective countries. 



To the North American egretta must be added the Ardea Pealii, 

 discovered by Bonaparte. It is distinguished from its allies by the 

 flesh colour of the bill, is much smaller than A. alba, differs from A. 

 garzetta by its large compound crest, and from A. candissima by the 

 quality and texture of the ornamental feathers. — Ed. 



