■ 
* 
PEALE’S EGRET HERON. 
the young vary greatly from the adults, and do not gain their 
complete plumage till their third year. 
In habits and internal conformation these birds are all much 
more alike than in external. They have all a grave, deliberate, 
and well poised gait: their flight is slow, though light and ele¬ 
vated, and they stretch back their legs like sticks in flying, even 
more so than other Waders. They are faithfully monogamous in 
their loves : their nests are built with more art than those of 
aquatic birds generally, being placed in trees, thickets, aquatic 
grasses, and some of the species, half domesticated, even nestle 
on housetops: the female incubates, while the male merely 
watches, and supplies her with food. Both unite in nursing and 
rearing their young, which remain in the nest until they are full- 
fledged. The flesh of these Waders is quite unpalatable. 
The genus Jlrdea , when disembarrassed of the several spe¬ 
cies forced into it by ancient authors, is a very natural one, 
differing from the Storks by having the inner toe cleft, whilst 
they have all the toes semipalmated at base : the Storks also 
have the tarsi reticulated, and the middle toe-nail entire, whilst 
the Herons have the former scutellated and the latter toothed 
like a saw, to assist in seizing and securing their slippery prey. 
A peculiarity of the Herons, in which they not only differ 
from the Storks, but from all other birds, is found in their 
anatomy: they have but one caecum, like quadrupeds, while other 
birds have two. The genus Jlrdea is admitted by all authors, 
though some modern writers have cut it up into several, which 
we employ as subgenera, or groups of still minor importance. 
Generally divided into three, and by Boie into five, they might 
with the same propriety be carried to seven or eight; we recog¬ 
nise no more than three, comprising eight secondary groups. 
The first, which we call more properly Heron, {Jlrdea,) is well 
distinguished by its long and slender neck, all well clothed with 
VOL. iv.—cc 
