90 
LITTLE EGBET. 
‘On the wing, the Little Egret is rather quicker in flight 
than the larger species, hut in windy weather it is very helpless, 
and is obliged to skim low over the bushes and reecjs on its 
passage from o'ne piece of water to another. But when the 
weather is fine, this bird may be seen, if startled up by 
intrusion of any kind, circling up high in the air, as if 
surveying the neighbourhood before it finally decides upon its 
course.’ 
If taken young, they are easily domesticated to a certain 
extent, and are gentle and harmless in their manners and 
habits. The long feathers, Bewick says, were formerly used 
to decorate the helmets of warriors, as now the turbans of the 
Persians and the Turks, and the head-dresses of European 
ladies. 
They feed on fish, frogs, and other small reptiles, water 
insects and their larvse, and worms. ‘The manner in which 
it obtains its food is by walking stealthily along shore in a 
stooping attitude, with the head drawn back; as soon as it 
perceives a desirable object, the Egret darts its pointed bill 
like lightning upon it, and seldom fails to obtain its prey.’ 
This species, like the others, breeds in marshy places, either 
on the ground among reeds, or on the top of a willow stump, 
or on the branches of a low tree, about half a dozen feet 
from the ground. The nest is made of dry sticks and rushes, 
flags, reeds, and grass; the latter being placed inside. 
The eggs are four or five, or six, in number, and, dhe 
account says of the same white colour as the bird, or another, 
of a pale bluish green colour. 
Male; weight, about one pound or upwards; length, one 
foot eight to one foot ten or eleven inches, or even two feet; 
bill, bluish black, the base of the upper one pale ash-colour; 
iris, yellow; the eyelids, pale green. A dependent crest, so to 
call it, springs from the back of the head; it is composed of 
two narrow feathers, four inches in length. Head, crown, and 
neck, the lower part of which is also adorned with similar 
long feathers, nape, chin, throat, breast, and back, white; hair¬ 
like plumes spring from its centre, their ends curve upwards, 
and the bird, if suddenly disturbed or alarmed, generally sets 
them up. 
The wings have the first and fourth quill feathers equal in 
length, the second and third the longest, and also of equal 
length, ‘inter se.’ Greater and lesser wing coverts, primaries, 
secondaries, tertiaries, greater and lesser under wing coverts, 
