SPECIES 4. ARDEJi EGRETTJi. 
GREAT WHITE HERON. 
[Plate LXI. — Fig. 4.] 
PnALv.h Museum, JVo. 5754; Young, 3755.* 
This tall and elegant bird, though often seen, during the 
summer, in our low marshes and inundated meadows; yet, on 
account of its extreme vigilance, and watchful timidity, is very 
difficult to be procured. Its principal residence is in the regions 
of the south, being found from Guiana, and probably beyond 
the line, to New York. It enters the territories of the United 
States late in February; this I conjecture from having first met 
with it in the southern parts of Georgia about that time. The 
high inland parts of the country it rarely or never visits; its 
favourite haunts are vast inundated swamps, rice fields, the low 
marshy shores of rivers, and such like places; where, from its 
size and colour, it is very conspicuous, even at a great distance. 
The appearance of this bird, during the first season, when it 
is entirely destitute of the long flowing plumes of the back, is 
so different from the same bird in its perfect plumage, which it 
obtains in the third year, that naturalists and others very ge- 
nerally consider them as two distinct species. The opportuni- 
ties which I have fortunately had, of observing them, with the 
train, in various stages of its progress, from its first appearance to 
its full growth, satisfies me that the Great White Heron with, and 
that without, the long plumes, are one and the same species, in 
different periods of age. In the museum of my friend Mr. Peale, 
there is a specimen of this bird, in which the train is wanting; 
' £rdea alba, Linn. Syst. Ed. 10, p. 144. 
