26 
ARDEA HERODIAS. 
GENUS X L V. — A ED EA, Linnaeus. 
SUBGENUS I. ARDEA . 
202 . ARDEA HERODIAS , LINN. AND WILSON. GREAT HERON. 
WILSON, PLATE LXV. FIG. II. 
The history of this large and elegant bird haying 
been long involved in error and obscurity,* I have 
taken more than common pains to present a faithful 
description of it, and every fact and authentic parti- 
cular relative to its manners, which may be necessary 
to the elucidation of the subject. 
The great heron is a constant inhabitant of the 
Atlantic coast, from New York to Florida ; in deep 
snows and severe weather seeking the open springs 
of the cedar and cypress swamps, and the muddy inlets 
occasionally covered by the tides. On the higher inland 
parts of the country, beyond the mountains, they are 
less numerous ; and one which was shot in the upper 
parts of New Hampshire, was described to me as a great 
curiosity. Many of their breeding places occur in both 
Carolinas, chiefly in the vicinity of the sea. In the 
lower parts of New Jersey, they have also their favourite 
places for building, and rearing their young. These 
are generally in the gloomy solitudes of the tallest cedar 
swamps, where, if unmolested, they continue annually 
to breed for many years. These swamps are from half 
a mile to a mile in breadth, and sometimes five or six 
in length, and appear as if they occupied the former 
channel of some choked up river, stream, lake, or arm 
* Latham says of this species, that “ all the upper parts of the 
body, the belly, tail, and legs, are brown and this description has 
been repeated by every subsequent compiler. Buffon, with his 
usual eloquent absurdity, describes the heron as “ exhibiting the 
picture of wretchedness, anxiety, and indigence ; condemned to 
struggle perpetually with misery and want ; sickened with the 
restless cravings of a famished appetite a description so ridi- 
culously untrue, that, were it possible for these birds to comprehend 
it, it would excite the risibility of the whole tribe. 
