SNOWY HERON. 
35 
204. ARDEA C AN DID I SSI M A) GMELIN AND WILSON. 
SNOWY HERON. 
WILSON, PLATE LXII. FIG. IV. 
This elegant species inhabits the sea coast of North 
America, from the Isthmus of Darien to the Gulf of St 
Lawrence, and is, in the United States, a bird of passage ; 
arriving from the south early in April, and leaving the 
middle States again in October. Its general appearance, 
resembling so much that of the little egret of Europe, 
has, I doubt not, imposed on some of the naturalists of 
that country, as I confess it did on me.* From a more 
careful comparison, however, of both birds, I am satisfied 
that they are two entirely different and distinct species. 
These differences consist in the large flowing crest, 
yellow feet, and singularly curled plumes of the back 
of the present ; it is also nearly double the size of the 
European species. 
The snowy heron seems particularly fond of the salt 
marshes during summer, seldom penetrating far inland. 
Its white plumage renders it a very conspicuous object, 
either while on wing, or while wading the meadows or 
marshes. Its food consists of those small crabs usually 
called fiddlers , mud worms, snails, frogs, and lizards. 
It also feeds on the seeds of some species of nymphse, 
and of several other aquatic plants. 
On the 19th of May I visited an extensive breeding 
place of the snowy heron, among the red cedars of 
Summers’s Beach, on the coast of Cape May. The 
situation was very sequestered, bounded on the land 
side by a fresh water marsh or pond, and sheltered 
from the Atlantic by ranges of sand hills. The cedars, 
though not high, were so closely crowded together as 
to render it difficult to penetrate through among them. 
Some trees contained three, others four nests, built 
* iC On the American continent the little egret is met with at 
New York and Long Island.”— Latham, vol. iii, p. 90. 
