128 
LITTLE WHITE HERON. 
Note by the Editor. 
CATESBY represents the bill of his bird as red, and this 
error has been perpetuated by all succeeding ornithologists. The 
fact is, that the bills of young Herons are apt to assume a reddish 
tint after death, and this was evidently mistaken by Catesby for a 
permanent living color ; and represented as such by an exaggera- 
tion common to almost all colorers of plates of Natural history. 
We have no hesitation in asserting that a Heron such as that fig- 
ured by the author in question does not exist in the United States. 
That his Heron is identical with ours there can be no doubt ; and 
we are equally satisfied that his specimen was a bird of the first 
year. So common did we find this species along the coasts of the 
Carolinas, Georgia and East Florida, during the winter, that they 
were to be seen every hour of the day, and were almost as tame 
as domestic fowls. A specimen shot in East Florida was twenty- 
one inches in length ; the upper mandible, and tip of the lower, were 
black, base of the latter flesh colored, the remainder of bill yellow. 
