GREAT HERON. 
55 
tioned ; on tlie contrary, the young or yearling bird has been 
universally described as the female. 
On the 18th of May, I examined, both externally and by 
dissection, five specimens of the great heron, all in complete 
plumage, killed in a cedar swamp near the head of Tuckahoe 
river, in Cape May county. New Jersey. In this case, the 
females could not be mistaken, as some of the eggs were nearly 
ready for exclusion. 
Length of the great heron, four feet four inches from the 
point of the bill to the end of the tail ; and to the bottom of 
the feet, five feet four inches ; extent, six feet ; bill eight inches 
long, and one inch and a quarter in width, of a yellow colour, 
in some, blackish on the ridge, extremely sharp at the point, 
the edges also sharp, and slightly serrated near the extremity ; 
space round the eye, from the nostril, a light purplish blue ; 
irides, orange, brightening into yellow where they join the pu- 
pil I forehead and middie of the crown, white, passing over the 
eye ; sides of the crown and hind head, deep slate, or bluish 
black, and elegantly crested, the two long, tapering black fea- 
thers, being full eight inches in length ; chin, cheeks, and sides 
of the head, white for several inches ; throat, white, thickly 
streaked with double rows of black ; rest of the neck, brownish 
ash, from the lower part of which shoot a great number of long, 
narrow-pointed, white feathers, that spread over the breast, 
and reach nearly to the thighs ; under these long plumes, the 
breast itself, and middle of the belly, are of a deep blackish 
slate, the latter streaked with white ; sides, blue ash ; vent, 
white ; thighs, and ridges of the wings, a dark purplish rust 
colour ; whole upper parts of the wings, tail, and body, a fine 
light ash, the latter ornamented with a profusion of long, nar- 
row, white, tapering feathers, originating on the shoulders, or 
upper part of the back, and falling gracefully over the wings ; 
primaries, very dark slate, nearly black ; naked thighs, brown- 
ish yellow ; legs, brownish black, tinctured with yellow, and 
netted with seams of whitish; in some, the legs are nearly 
black. Little difference could be perceived between the plu- 
