444 



GREA T HERON. 



inches ; bill, black, stout, and about four inches in length, the 

 upper mandible grooved exactly like that of the common 

 night heron ; lores, pale green ; irides, fiery red ; head and 

 part of the neck, black, marked on each cheek with an oblong 

 spot of white ; crested crown and upper part of the head white, 

 ending in two long narrow tapering plumes of pure white, 

 more than seven inches long ; under these are a few others of 

 a blackish colour ; rest of the neck and whole lower parts, 

 fine ash, somewhat whitish on that part of the neck where it 

 joins the black ; upper parts, a dark ash, each feather streaked 

 broadly down the centre with black, and bordered with white ; 

 wing-quills, deep slate, edged finely with white ; tail, even at 

 the end, and of the same ash colour ; wing-coverts, deep slate, 

 broadly edged with pale cream ; from each shoulder proceed 

 a number of long loosely-webbed tapering feathers, of an ash 

 colour, streaked broadly down the middle with black, and 

 extending four inches or more beyond the tips of the wings ; 

 legs and feet, yellow ; middle claw, pectinated. Male and 

 female, as in the common night heron, alike in plumage. 



I strongly suspect that the species called by naturalists the 

 Cayenne night heron (Ardea Cayanensii), is nothing more 

 than the present, with which, according to their descriptions, 

 it seems to agree almost exactly. 



GKEAT HERON. (Ardea Herodias.) 



PLATE LXV.-Fig. 2. 



Le Heron Hupe cle Virginie, Briss. v. p. 416, 10. — Grand Heron, Buff. vii. p. 355 ; 

 Id. p. 386. — Largest Crested Heron, Catesby, App. pi. 10, fig. 1. — Lath. Byn. 

 iii. p. 85. Xo. ol.—Arct. Zool. Xo. 341, 342.— Peak's Museum, Xo. 3629; 

 young, 3631. 



ARDEA HERODIAS.— Lewies.* 



Ardea Herodias, Bonap. Synop. p. 304. — North. Zool. ii. p. 373. 



The history of this large and elegant bird having been long 

 involved in error and obscurity, I have taken more than com- 



* This may be called the representative of the European heron ; it is 

 considerably larger, but in the general colours bears a strong resemblance, 



