GREAT WHITE HERON. 
299 
scarcely as thick as a goose-quill, and incapable of being distended ; so 
that the vulgar story of the Heron swallowing eels which, passing sud- 
denly through him are repeatedly swallowed, is absurd and impossible. 
On the external coat of the stomach of one of these birds, opened soon 
after being shot, something like a blood vessel lay in several meandering 
folds, enveloped in a membrane, and closely adhering to the surface. 
On carefully opening this membrane it was found to contain a large 
round living worm, eight inches in length ; another of like length was 
found coiled in the same manner on another part of the external coat. 
It may also be worthy of notice, that the intestines of the young birds 
of the first season, killed in the month of October, when they were 
nearly as large as the others, measured only six feet four or five inches, 
those of the full grown ones from eight to nine feet in length. 
Species IV. ARDEA EG R ETTA* 
GREAT WHITE HERON. 
[Plate LXI. Fig. 4.] 
Tins tall and elegant bird, though often seen, during the summer, in 
our low marshes and inundated meadows ; yet, on account of its ex- 
treme vigilance, and watchful timidity, is very difficult to he 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 favor- 
ite haunts are vast inundated swamps, rice fields, the low marshy shores 
of rivers, and such like places ; where, from its size and color, 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 opportunities which I have fortunately had, 
of observing them, with the train, in various stages of its progress, from 
its first appearance 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 was a specimen of this bird, in which the train was wanting ; 
* Ardea alba, Linn. Syst. Ed. 10, p. 144. 
