412 
Grall^.- 
-BIRDS.- 
-AUDRlD-li. 
THE TRUMPETER {Psophia crepitans), also called 
the Agami, another South American species, is espe- 
cially abundant in Guiana, where it is frequently 
domesticated and kept in the poultry yards, from a 
notion that it protects the fowls from the assaults of 
Fig. 128. 
The Crov.-ned Demoiselle (Balearica pavomna). 
predaceous birds. It becomes exceedingly tame, and 
will then follow its owner about like a dog, and even 
endeavour to drive away other domestic animals to 
prevent their receiving any notice. The Trumpeter is 
about the size of our common Heron. It has a short 
convex bill, long tarsi, and a short tail. Its general 
colour is black, with a very brilliant metallic blue 
lustre on the upper surface. The bill is yellowish, 
and the feet orange colour. The name of this bird 
is derived from the peculiar loiid and rough trumpet- 
ing sound which it emits. Its flesh is said to be very 
delicate. Two other species of Trumpeters are known ; 
one of them (P. viridis) is of a green colour above, 
and the other (P. Icucoptera) has the wing-quills white. 
Family IV. — ARDEIDiE. 
This family includes a much greater number and 
variety of birds than the preceding — the Herons, 
Bitterns, Storks, Ibises, and many other forms. Of 
course, in so extensive a family the characters are 
liable to great variation, but all the birds referred to 
this group agree in one important point, namely, the 
full development of the posterior toe, which is placed 
on the same plane as the three anterior ones, and is 
applied to the ground in walking. The legs are 
long and slender, and naked for a considerable 
distance above the articulation of the tarsus. 
The latter is generally scutellated. The bill is 
always of considerable size, and strong; in the 
majority it is of a conical form, and often very 
acute at the point. The wings are greatly 
developed, and the birds are generally endowed 
with considerable powers of flight, although they 
are rarely very rapid in their motion through 
the air. These birds are found in all the warmer 
and temperate parts of the world, and many of 
them are either very widely distributed or per- 
form more or less extensive migrations. They 
haunt marshy places and the margins of lakes 
and rivers, and feed for the most part upon fishes, 
frogs, and other aquatic animals. 
THE GRAY HERON {Ardea cinerea ) — Plate 24, 
fig. 92. This fine bird, which may be taken as 
the type of the Herons properly so-called, is a 
native of Britain, where it is tolerably common 
and generally distributed. It is a large species, 
measuring fully three feet in length, and is fur- 
nished with enormous wings, which, when spread, 
look quite disproportionate to the size of the bird. 
The general colour of the plumage is bluish-gray 
above, and white beneath. The back of the head 
is adorned with a crest of long dark slate- 
coloured feathers ; the bill is yellow, and the legs 
greenish. 
I / The common or Gray Heron appears to be 
i generally distributed over the t-’ld World, but in 
its most northern haunts it is migratory, only 
visiting them in the summer. At this season 
the bird frequents inland districts, along the 
margins of lakes and rivers, in the neighbourhood 
of marshy places ; but in the winter it frequently 
resorts to the shores of the sea and the mouths 
of rivers. Its food consists principally of fishes, 
which it captures by standing" patiently in the water 
until they pass within its reach, when the long 
neck is immediately darted out, and the luckless prey 
is generally secured and swallowed. Large fish are 
sometimes transfixed by one of the acute mandibles; 
and Mr. Yarrell mentions a case in which a Heron 
drove its upper mandible through the eyes of a large 
eel, which then, in its agony, coiled itself so tightly 
round the neck of its captor that the bird was prevented 
from breathing, and the pair were found dead in this 
close but by no means loving embrace. Besides fish, 
the Heron feeds freely upon frogs, newts, and other 
aquatic animals, and is said even to devour small birds 
and quadrupeds. 
At the commencement of the breeding season, tho 
Herons, which have lived in solitude through tho 
winter, become very sociable in their habits, and collect 
together, like the rooks, in some wood or clump of 
large trees, which is generally frequented by them for 
