10 
GREAT WHITE HERON. 
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 
generally consider them as two distinct species. The oppor- 
tunities which I have fortunately had of observing them with 
the train in various stages of its progress, from its first appear- 
ance 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 ; but on a closer examination, its rudiments 
of a plumage similar to the full winter dress : most of the species when mature 
are clothed in a garb of the purest white. 
The bird with which our present species is more immediately connected, hs 
theArdea alba, Gmel., a European bird, confounded with the young of A. egretta, 
and not yet, I believe, found in North America. The chief differences are pre- 
sence of the crest, and much longer proportion of the legs. A. egretta seems to 
range extensively over the continents of America, and some of the islands ; I 
am not aware of its being found elsewhere; and the African, Asiatic, and New 
Holland allied species, will, I suspect, turn out distinct, and most probably 
belong to their respective countries. 
To the North American egretta must be added the Ardea Pealii, discovered by 
Bonaparte. It is distinguished from its allies by the flesh colour of the bill, is 
much smaller than A. alba, differs from A. garzetta by its large compound crest, 
and from A, candissimajhy the quality and texture of the ornamental feathers. — 
Ed. 
