108 
PEALE’S EGRET HERON. 
and the Jl. stellaris of Europe, together with its close analogue, 
Jl. minor of Wilson, may be regarded as the types of a similar 
small group: another group hardly distinct had been called 
Crabier by the French, but without any fixed character: we have 
divided these Crabiers into two groups, and made them regular 
by arranging them near the limits of our two subgenera: the 
larger striated species of Bitterns have also been called Onores , 
(Tigrisoma , Sw.) 
A third subgenus, which we first instituted, and called Jlrdeola, 
contains only three species, the smallest of the tribe, and closely 
allied in form and even markings : one is the European Jlrdea 
minuta , the other the American Jlrdea exilis, and the third a still 
less, the New-Holland Jlrdea pusilla. In these the female differs 
somewhat from the male, and the young is different from both. 
The bill of these small Herons is much the same as that of the 
true Heron, being longer than the head, higher than broad at 
base, and with the upper mandible nearly straight: the neck 
likewise is elongated and rather slender; but, as in the Bitterns, 
it is merely downy above, and thickly covered on the remaining 
parts with long, loose, and broad erectile feathers : the body is 
slender, and exceedingly compressed, like that of the Rails, of 
which they remind one : the legs are comparatively short, but 
what strikes most, as a circumstance extraordinary in the Waders, 
their tibiae are completely feathered, as in the Woodcock and the 
land birds: the membrane that unites the toes is moreover simply 
rudimental. 
These birds, which are chiefly nocturnal, have much of the 
habits of the Rails. They live and propagate in marshy grounds, 
hiding closely amongst the reeds, and running far and very fast 
in them rather than take wing. They feed on small fishes, 
reptiles, spawn, but more especially on water insects. 
Returning to our Egret, whose claims to be considered new 
