GREAT HERON. 
49 
seven inches long ; under these are a few others of a blackish 
colour ; rest of the neck and whole lower parts, fine ash, some- 
what whitish on that part of the neck where it joins the black; 
upper parts, a dark ash, each feather streaked broadly down 
the centre with black, and bordered with white ; wing-quills, 
deep slate, edged finely with white ; tail, even at the end, and 
of the same ash colour ; wing-coverts, deep slate, broadly edged 
with pale cream ; from each shoulder proceed a number of long 
loosely-webbed tapering feathers, of an ash colour, streaked 
broadly down the middle with black, and extending four inches 
or more beyond the tips of the wings ; legs and feet, yellow ; 
middle claw, pectinated. Male and female, as in the common 
night heron, alike in plumage. 
I strongly suspect that the species called by naturalists the 
Cayenne night heron (Ardea Ca^anensis), is nothing more than 
the present, with which, according to their descriptions, it 
seems to agree almost exactly. 
GREAT HERON— ARDEA HERODIAS Plate LXV. Fig. 2. 
Le Heron Eupe de Virginie, Briss, v. p. 416, 10 ; Grand Heron, Buff. vii. p. 355 ; 
Id. p. 386. — Largest Crested Heron, Cateshy, App. pi. 10, fig. 1 Lath. Syn. 
iii. p. 85, No. 51. — Arct. Zool. No. 341, 342 — Pealds Museum, No. 3629; 
Young, 3631. 
ARDEA HE RODIAS.~Li^MVB.^t 
Ardea Eerodias, Bonap. Synop. p. 304. — North. Zooh ii. p. 373. 
The history of this large and elegant bird having been long 
* TEis may be called the representative of the European heron ; it is con - 
siderably larger, but in the general colours bears a strong resemblance, and is, 
moreover, the only North American bird that can rank with the genus Ardea 
in its restricted sense. In manners they are similar, feed in the evening, or 
early in the morning when their prey is most active in search of its own vic- 
tims ; but roost at night except during very clear moonlight. They are ex- 
tremely shy and watchful, and the height they are able to overlook with the 
VOL. III. 
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