36 
ARDEA candidissima. 
■wholly of sticks. Each had in it three cffo-s of a pale 
greenish hlue colour, and measuring an inch and three 
quarters in length, hy an inch and a quarter in thick- 
ness. Forty or fitty of these eggs ivere cooked, and 
tound to be w ell tasted; the white was of a bluish tint, 
and almost transparent, though boiled fora considerable 
time ; tlie yolk very small in quantity. The birds rose 
in vast niimbers, but without clamour, aligliting on the 
tops ot the trees around, and wateliing the result in 
silent anxiety. Among them were nnmliers of the 
night heron, .and two or three purple-headed herons. 
Great quantities of egg shells lay scattered under the 
trees, occasioned by the depredations of the crows, who 
were continiially liovering about the place. On one of 
the nests I found the dead body of the bird itself half 
devoured by the hawks, crows, or gulls. She had 
probably perished in defence of her eggs. 
The snowy heron is seen at all times during summer 
among the salt marshes, watching and searchino- for 
food or passing, sometimes in flocks, from one p.art of 
he bay to the other. They often make excursiLs up 
the rivers and inlets, but return regularly in the eveninrr 
to the red cedars on the beach to roost. I found these 
birds on the Mississippi, early in .Tune, as far up aS 
fort Ad.ams, roaming about among the creeks and 
inundated ivoods. 
species is two feet one inch; 
extent, three teet tivo inches ; the bill is four inches 
nostidl *1"'^'^'*' ““‘1 grooved ; the space from the 
1 hcl yeHo'v, the rest of the bill 
1 '■'''“1 or.ange; the whole plum.agc is of 
snowy w luteiiess; the head is largely crested with 
loose unwebbed feathers, nearly ionr inches in length ; 
another tuft of the same covers the breast ; but the most 
distinguished ornament of this bird is a bunch of long 
silky plumes, proceeding from the shoulders, covering 
the whole back, and extending bovond (he fail, the 
shafts of these are six or seven indh's long, exfremelv 
clastic, tailoring to the extremities, and (hinlv set n ith 
long, slender, bending threads or fibres, easily agitated 
