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The WHITE HERONS (Herodias) possess a slender body, long neck, and a comparatively weak bill. Their pure white plumage is adorned with long streaming feathers on the back during the period of incubation.
THE LESSER EGRET (Herodias garzetta). ONE-FOURTH NATURAL SIZE.
THE GREAT WHITE HERON.
The GREAT WHITE HERON (Herodias alba) has the entire plumage of pure and dazzling white. The eye is yellow, and the beak dark yellow; the bare cheeks are greenish yellow, and the feet dark grey. This species is forty inches long and seventy-two broad; the wing measures twenty-one inches, and the tail seven inches and a half. The beak changes colour, not according to the age of the bird, but at different seasons of the year. The young do not exhibit the streaming feathers on the back. This Heron inhabits the southern parts of Siberia and South-eastern Europe, and during its migrations appears in South Asia and North Africa. In India, and South and Western Africa, it is replaced by a very similar species. In England it is occasionally but rarely seen. Like its congeners, this beautiful bird occupies marshy ground in the vicinity of water, preferring such spots as are least frequented by man, and subsists upon the same fare as other members of its family. In its general[Pg 82] air and movements, however, it differs from them in many respects; it walks with a more stately step, flies faster and more gracefully, and constantly assumes a variety of strange postures; when standing, it frequently buries its head, neck, and one leg in its plumage, and thus presents the appearance of a great white ball fastened to the top of a thin stick. The large nest of this bird is placed amongst reeds, of portions of which it is also built; so firm and strong are these heaps that, as we are told, they can support the weight of a man. The eggs are usually three or four in number, and have a smoother shell and bluer tint than those of the species before described.
THE LESSER EGRET.
The LESSER EGRET (Herodias garzetta) resembles the above bird in its general appearance and habits, but it is not more than twenty-four inches long and forty-two broad; the wing measures twelve and the tail four inches. In this species the eye is bright red, the beak black, and the foot black, with greenish yellow joints. This beautiful little Egret occupies the same latitudes as the larger species, and, according to Layard, has been procured both in winter and nuptial dress in the vicinity of Cape Town; also at Colesberg, and at the Kneysna. The stomachs examined by that naturalist contained multitudes of small aquatic shells. A nearly-allied species (Ardea egretta) is common on the Kneysna, but is so shy as to be almost unapproachable; it breeds on a small rock on the sea.
The Little Egret is now very rare in Great Britain, but was formerly much more common, and was regarded by our forefathers as a dainty article of food. In the celebrated feast on the enthronisation of Archbishop Nevill no less than 1,000 Egrets are mentioned in the bill of fare.
THE CATTLE HERON.