450 GREA T HERON. 



that the young and imperfect birds have been hitherto mis- 

 taken for females, I will not pretend to say, though I think the 

 latter conjecture highly probable, as the night raven (Ardea 

 nycticorax) has been known in Europe for several centuries, 

 and yet, in all their accounts, the sameness of the colours and 

 plumage of the male and female of that bird is nowhere men- 

 tioned ; on the contrary, the young or yearling bird has been 

 universally described as the female. 



On the 18th of May, I examined, both externally and by 

 dissection, five specimens of the great heron, all in complete 

 plumage, killed in a cedar swamp near the head of Tucka- 

 hoe river, in Cape May county, New Jersey. In this case, the 

 females could not be mistaken, as some of the eggs were nearly 

 ready for exclusion. 



Length of the great heron, four feet four inches from the 

 point of the bill to the end of the tail ; and to the bottom of 

 the feet, five feet four inches ; extent, six feet ; bill eight 

 inches long, and one inch and a quarter in width, of a yellow 

 colour, in some, blackish on the ridge, extremely sharp at the 

 point, the edges also sharp, and slightly serrated near the 

 extremity ; space round the eye, from the nostril, a light 

 purplish blue ; irides, orange, brightening into yellow where 

 they join the pupil ; forehead and middle of the crown, white 

 passing over the eye; sides of the crown and hind head, deep 

 slate or bluish black, and elegantly crested, the two long, 

 tapering black feathers being full eight inches in length ; 

 chin, cheeks, and sides of the head, white for several inches ; 

 throat white, thickly streaked with double rows of black ; rest 

 of the neck, brownish ash, from the lower part of which shoot 

 a great number of long, narrow, pointed white feathers, that 

 spread over the breast, and reach nearly to the thighs ; 

 under these long plumes, the breast itself and middle of the 

 belly are of a deep blackish slate, the latter streaked with 

 white ; sides, blue ash ; vent, white ; thighs and ridges of the 

 wings, a dark purplish rust colour ; whole upper parts of the 

 wings, tail, and body, a fine light ash, the latter ornamented 



