Species IX. ARDEA CANDIDISSIMA. 
SNOWY HERON.* 
[Plate LXII. Fig. 4.] 
Turt. Syst. p. 380.— Lath. Syn. in., p. 92, No. 61. 
This elegant species inhabits the seacoast of North America, from 
the Isthmus of Darien to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and is, in the 
United States, a bird of passage ; arriving from the south early in 
April, and leaving the Middle States again in October. Its general 
appearance, resembling so much that of the Little Egret of Europe, 
has, I doubt not, imposed on some of the naturalists of that country, 
as I confess it did on me.f From a more careful comparison, however, 
of both birds, I am satisfied that they are two entirely different and 
distinct species. These differences consist in the large flowing crest, 
yellow feet, and singularly curled plumes of the back of the present ; 
it is also nearly double the size of the European species. 
The Snowy Heron seems particularly fond of the salt marshes during 
summer ; seldom penetrating far inland. Its white plumage renders it 
a very conspicuous object, either while on wing, or while wading the 
meadows or marshes. Its food consists of those small crabs, usually 
called fiddlers, mud worms, snails, frogs and lizards. It also feeds on 
the seeds of some species of nymphpe, and of several other aquatic 
plants. 
On the nineteenth of May, I visited an extensive breeding place of 
the Snowy Heron, among the red cedars of Sommers' Beach, on the 
coast of Cape May. The situation was very sequestered, bounded on 
the land side by a fresh water marsh or pond, and sheltered from the 
Atlantic by ranges of sand hills. The cedars, though not high, were 
so closely crowded together, as to render it difficult to penetrate through 
among them. Some trees contained three, others four, nests, built 
wholly of sticks. Each had in it three eggs of a pale greenish blue 
color, and measuring an inch and three quarters in length, by an inch 
and a quarter in thickness. Forty or fifty of these eggs were cooked, 
* Named in the plate, by mistake, the Little Egret. 
f " On the American continent, the Little Egret is met with at New York and 
Long Island." Lath, hi., p. 90. 
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