288 
VEP.TEBRATA. 
THE GEEAT WHITE HERON OP AMERICA. (See p. 290.) 
is," says Wilson, " a constant inhabitant of tlie Atlantic coast, from New York to Florida ; in 
deep snows and severe weather, seeking the open springs of the cedar and cypress swamps, and 
the muddy inlets occasionally covered by the tides. On the higher inland parts of the coun- 
try, beyond the mountains, they are less numerous, and one which was shot in the upper parts 
of New Hampshire was described to me as a great curiosity. Many of their breeding places occur 
in both Carolinas, chiefly in the vicinity of the sea. In the lower parts of New Jersey they have 
also their favorite places for building and rearing their young. These are generally in the gloomy 
solitudes of the tallest cedar swamps, where, if unmolested, they continue annually to breed for 
many years. These swamps are from half a mile to a mile in breadth, and sometimes five or six 
in length, and appear as if they occupied the former channel of some choked up river, stream, 
lake, or arm of the sea. The appearance they present to a stranger is singular — a front of tall 
and perfectly straight trunks, rising to the height of fifty or sixty feet, without a limb, and crowded 
in every direction, their tops so closely woven together as to shut out the day, spreading the 
gloom of a perpetual twilight below. On a nearer approach, they are found to rise out of the 
water, which, from the impregnation of the fallen leaves and roots of the cedars, is of the color 
of brandy. Amid this bottom of congregated springs the ruins of the former forest lie piled in 
every state of confusion. The roots, prostrate logs, and, in many places, the water, are covered 
with green, mantling moss, while an undergrowth of laurel, fifteen or twenty feet high, intersects 
every opening so completely as to render a passage through, laborious and harassing beyond de- 
scription; at every step you either sink to the knees, clamber over fallen timber, squeeze yourself 
through between the stubborn laurels, or plunge to the middle in ponds made by the uprooting 
of large trees, which the green moss concealed from observation. In calm weather the silence 
of death reigns in these dreary regions ; a few interrupted rays of light shoot across the gloom : 
