SNOWY HERON. 
35 
204 . ARDSA CANmDISSIIHAt GMELIN AND WILSON. 
SNOWY HERON. 
WILSON, PLATE LXII. FIG. IV. 
This elegant species inhabits tlie sea coast of Jsorth 
A.merica, from the Isthmus of Darien to the Gulf of St 
Lawrence, and is, in the United States, a bird ot passage; 
arriving from the south early in April, and leaving the 
®iiddle States again in October, Its general ajipearance, 
Resembling so much that ot the little egret ot Europe, 
aas, I doubt not, imposed on some ot the naturalists of 
tW country, as I confess it did on me.* From a more 
^**eful comparison, however, of both birds, l am satisned 
^at they are two entirely different and distinct species, 
^•lese differences consist in the large llowiiig crest, 
yellow feet, and singularly curled plumes of the hack 
^ the present ; it is also nearly double tlie size of the 
^’^opean species. r j !• i i. 
The snowy heron seems particularly fond ot the salt 
^^■rshes durinfT summer, seldom penetrating far inland- 
1^ white plnina're renders it a very conspicuous object, 
either while on wing, or while wading the meadows or 
>®arshes. Its food consists of those small crabs usually 
called fiddlers, mud worms, snails, frogs, and lizards. 
« also feeds on the seeds of some species ot nymphse, 
of several otlier aquatic plauts. 
Ou the 19th of May I visited an extensive breeding 
place of the snowy heron, among the red cedars of 
ouiuniers’s Beach, on the coast of Cape May. The 
situation was very sequestered, hounded ou 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 the™- 
“ome trees contained three, others four nests, built 
. ** On the American continent the little egret is met with at 
York and Long Island,” — L aihasii vol. iii> P- 9®- 
