Page:Cassell's book of birds (IA cassellsbookofbi04breh).pdf/101

 

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.

(Herodias garzetta).

THE GREAT WHITE HERON.

The (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