LOUISIANA HERON. 
87 
by tbfr slightest motion of the air ; these shafts curl 
upwards at the ends. When the bird is irritated, and 
erects those airy plumes, they have a very elegant 
appearance : the legs and naked part of the thighs are 
Waclcj the feet, bright yehow; claws, black, the middle 
uue pectinated. 
The female can scarcely be distinguished by her 
plumage, having not only the crest, but all the orna- 
uients of the male, though not quite so long and 
tlowing. 
The young birds of the first season .are entirely 
destitute of the long plumes of the breast and back ; 
but, as all those that have been e.varaiued in s]iring are 
louud crested and ornamented as above, they doubtless 
'■eeeivo their full dress on the fii-st moulting. Those 
shot in October measured twenty-two inches in length, 
. by thirty-four in e.vtcnt; the <’rest was beginning to 
torin : yellowish green, daubed with black ; 
the tcet. 
reeui.sh yellow ; the lower mandible white at 
te base ; the wings, when shut, nearly of a length with 
tail, which is even at the end. 
The little egret, or European .species, is said by 
utham and Turton to be nearly a foot in length; 
1 *^'y*bk observes, that it rarely e.vceeds a foot and a 
^ ‘ • has a much shorter crest, with two long feathers; 
yhe feet are black ; and tlie long plumage of the back, 
tustead of turning up at the extremity, falls over the 
ruinj). ® '■ 
The young of both these birds are generally very fat, 
^ud esteemed by some people as excellent eating. 
^5. SaUES T.UDOVICIANAf WILSON. LOUISIANA HERON. 
Wilson, plate lxiv. fig. i Edinburgh college jiuseujl 
. Tins is a rare and delicately formed species, occa- 
^onally found on the swampy river shores of feouth 
Carolina, but more frequently along the borders of the 
Mississippi, particularly below New Orleans. In each 
uf these places it is migratory ; and in the lattei’, as T 
