GREA T WHITE HERON. 405 



which the train is wanting ; but on a closer examination, its 

 rudiments are plainly to be perceived, extending several inches 

 beyond the common plumage. 



The great white heron breeds in several of the extensive 

 cedar swamps in the lower parts of New Jersey. Their nests 

 are built on the trees, in societies ; the structure and materials 

 exactly similar to those of the snowy heron, but larger. The 

 eggs are usually four, of a pale blue colour. In the months 

 of July and August, the young make their first appearance 

 in the meadows and marshes, in parties of twenty or thirty 

 together. The large ditches with which the extensive 

 meadows below Philadelphia are intersected are regularly, 

 about that season, visited by flocks of those birds ; these are 

 frequently shot, but the old ones are too sagacious to be easily 

 approached. Their food consists of frogs, lizards, small fish, 

 insects, seeds of the splatterdock (a species of nymphce), and 

 small water-snakes. They will also devour mice and moles, 

 the remains of such having been at different times found in 

 their stomachs. 



The long plumes of these birds have at various periods been 

 in great request on the continent of Europe, particularly in 

 France and Italy, for the purpose of ornamenting the female 

 head-dress. When dyed of various colours, and tastefully 

 fashioned, they form a light and elegant duster and mosquito 

 brush. The Indians prize them for ornamenting their hair 

 or top-knot ; and I have occasionally observed these people 

 wandering through the market-place of New Orleans, with 

 bunches of those feathers for sale. 



The great white heron measures five feet from the extremi- 

 ties of the wings, and three feet six inches from the tip of the 

 bill to the end of the tail ; the train extends seven or eight 

 inches farther. This train is composed of a great number of 

 long, thick, tapering shafts, arising from the lower part of the 

 shoulders, and thinly furnished on each side with fine flowing 

 hairlike threads, of several inches in length, covering the 

 lower part of the back, and falling gracefully over the tail, 



