26 
AKDEA HERODIAS. 
GENUS XLV.—^j^DE.-f, Linn^us. 
SUBGKNUS I. ARDEl, 
202. iRDEA HEItODlASy ZINK. AND WILSON GREAT HERON- 
WILSON, PLATE LXV. FIG. II. 
The history of this larg^e and eleg'ant bird having 
been lonjr involved in error and obscurity, I hav« 
taken niore than common pains to present a faithful 
description of it, and every fact and authentic parti' 
cular relative to its manners, which may be necessarj 
to the elucidation of the subject. 
The great heron is a constant inhabitant of th* 
Atlantic coiLst, from New York to Florida; in decf 
snows and severe weather seeking the open sprint!* 
of the cedar and cypre.s.s swamps, and the muddy inlet' 
occasionally covered by the tides. On the higher inland 
parts of the country, beyond the mountains, they aff 
less numerous ; and one ivhich was shot in the uppe* 
parts of New Hampshire, was described to me as a >wc»> 
curiosity. Many of their breeding places occur inTjotli 
Carolinas, chiefly in the vicinity of the sea. In tb* 
lower parts of New Jersey, they have also their favourit* 
places for building, and rearing their young, TheS* 
are generally in the gloomy solitudes of the tallest ccd»' 
swamps, where, it unmolested, they continue annually 
to breed for many years. These sivamps are from hall 
a mile to a mile in breadth, and sometimes five or si* 
in length, and appear as if they owupied the formC' 
channel of some choked up river, stream, lake, or afl* 
katbam says of this species, that “ all the upper parts of tt^ 
body, the belly, tad, and legs, are brown a„d this description h** 
been repeated by every siiliseijuent compiler. Biiffon, with hi* 
usual elouiicnt absurdity, describes the heron as “ exhibitine tb' 
picture ot wretchedness, anxiety, and indigence ; condemned 
struggle perpetually with misery and want; sickened with lb' 
restless cravings of a famished appetite u description so rid'; 
culously untrue, that, were it possible for these birds to comprehei"l 
It, It would excite the risibility of the whole tribe. 
