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HERON (Fr. heron; Ital. aghirone, airone; See also: bird, the typical representative of the See also: group Ardeidae
.
It is difficult or even impossible to estimate with any accuracy the number of See also: species of Ardeidae which exist
.
Professor Hermann See also: Schlegel in 1863 enumerated 61, besides 5 of what he terms " conspecies," as
contained in the collection at See also: Leyden (See also: Mus. See also: des Pays-Bas, Ardeae, 64 pp.),—on the other See also: hand, G
.
R
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See also: Gray in 1871 (Handlist, &c. iii
.
26-34) admitted above 9o, while Dr Anton Reichenow (Journ. fur Ornithologie, 1877, pp
.
232-275) recognizes 67 as known, besides 15 " subspecies " and 3 varieties, arranging them in 3 genera, Nycticorax, Botaurus and
See also: Ardea, with 17 sub-genera
.
But it is difficult to See also: separate the See also: family, with any satisfactory result, into genera, if structural characters have to be found for these See also: groups, for in many cases they run almost insensibly into each other—though in See also: common language it is 1 easy to speak .of herons, egrets, bitterns, See also: night-herons and
boatbills
.
With the exception of the last, Professor Schlegel retains all in the genus Ardea, dividing it into eight sections, the names of which may perhaps be Englished—great herons, small herons, egrets, semi-egrets, See also: rail-like herons, little bitterns, bitterns and night-herons
.
The common heron of See also: Europe, Ardea cinerea of See also: Linnaeus, is universally allowed to be the type of the family, and it may also be regarded as that of Professor Schlegel's first section
.
The species inhabits suitable localities throughout the whole of Europe, See also: Africa and See also: Asia, reaching See also: Japan, many of the islands of the See also: Indian See also: Archipelago and even See also: Australia
.
Though by no means so numerous as formerly in Britain, it is still sufficiently common,' and there must be few persons who have not seen it rising slowly from some See also: river-See also: side or marshy flat, or passing over-See also: head in its lofty and leisurely See also: flight on its way to or from its daily haunts; while they are many who have been entertained by watching it as it sought its See also: food, consisting chiefly of fishes (especially eels and flounders) and amphibians—though See also: young birds and small mammals come not amiss—wading midleg in the shallows, swimming occasionally when out of its See also: depth, or See also: standing motionless to strike its prey with its formidable and sure beak
.
When sufficiently numerous the heron breeds in See also: societies, known as heronries, which of old See also: time were protected both by See also: law and See also: custom in nearly all See also: European countries, on account of the sport their tenants afforded to the falconer
.
Of See also: late years, partly owing to the withdrawal of the See also: protection they had enjoyed, and still more, it would seem, from agricultural improvement, which, by draining See also: meres, See also: fens and marshes, has abolished the feeding-places of a See also: great population of herons, many of the larger heronries have broken up—the birds composing them dispersing to neighbouring localities and forming smaller settlements, most of which are hardly to be dignified by the name of heronry, though commonly accounted such
.
Thus the number of so-called heronries in the See also: United See also: Kingdom, and especially in See also: England and See also: Wales, has become far greater than formerly, but no one can doubt that the number of herons has dwindled
.
The sites chosen by the heron for its See also: nest vary greatly
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It is generally built in the top of a lofty See also: tree, but not unfrequently (and this seems to have been much more usual in former days) near or on the ground among rough vegetation, on an See also: island in a lake, or again on a rocky cliff of the See also: coast
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It commonly consists of a huge mass of sticks, often the accumulation of years, lined with twigs, and in it are laid from four to six See also: sea-See also: green eggs
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The young are clothed in soft See also: flax-coloured down, and remain in the nest for a consider-able time, therein differing remarkably from the " pipers " of the See also: crane, which are able to run almost as soon as they are hatched
.
The first feathers assumed by young herons in a general way resemble those of the adult, but the pure See also: white breast, the black throat-streaks and especially the long pendent plumes, which characterize only the very old birds, and are most beautiful in the cocks, are subsequently acquired
.
The heron
See also: measures about 3 ft. from the See also: bill to the tail, and the expanse of its wings is sometimes not less than 6 ft., yet it weighs only between 3 and 4 m•
Large as is the common heron of Europe, it is exceeded in See also: size by the great blue heron of See also: America (Ardea herodias), which generally resembles it in appearance and habits, and both are smaller than the A. sumatrana or A. See also: typhon of See also: India and the See also: Malay Archipelago, while the A. See also: goliath, of wide distribution in Africa and Asia, is the largest of all
.
The See also: purple heron, A. purpurea, as a well-known European species having a great range over the Old See also: World, also deserves mention here
.
The species included in Professor Schlegel's second section inhabit the tropical parts of Africa, See also: Australasia and America
.
The egrets, forming his third group, require more See also: notice, distinguished as they are by their pure white plumage, and, when in breeding-dress, by
' In many parts of England it is generally called a " hernser "—being a corruption of " heronsewe," which, as Professor See also: Skeat states (Etymol
.
See also: Dictionary, p
.
264), is a perfectly distinct word from " heronshaw," commonly confounded with it
.
The further corruption of " hernser " into " handsaw," as in the well-known proverb, was easy in the mouth of men to whom hawking the heronsewe was unfamiliar-the beautiful dorsal tufts of decothposed feathers that ordinarily droop over the tail, and are so highly esteemed as ornaments by See also: Oriental magnates
.
The largest species is A. occidentalis, only known apparently from See also: Florida and See also: Cuba; but one not much less, the great egret (A. See also: alba), belongs to the Old World, breeding regularly in See also: south-eastern Europe, and occasionally straying to Britain
.
A third, A. egretta, represents it in America, while much the same may be said of two smaller species, A. garzetta, the little egret of See also: English authors, and A. candidissima; and a See also: sixth, A. intermedia, is common in India, See also: China and Japan, besides occurring in Australia
.
The group of semi-egrets, containing some nine or ten forms, among which the See also: buff-backed heron (A. bubulcus), is the only species that is known to have occurred in Europe, is hardly to be distinguished from the last section except by their plumage being at certain seasons varied in some species with slaty-blue and in others with rufous
.
The rail-like herons See also: form Professor Schlegel's next section, but it can scarcely be satisfactorily differentiated, and the epithet is misleading, for its members have no rail-like See also: affinities, though the typical species,
which inhabits the south of Europe, and occasionally finds its way to England, has long been known as A. ralloides' Nearly all these birds are tropical or subtropical
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Then there is the somewhat better defined group of little bitterns, containing about a dozen species—the smallest of the whole family
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One of them, A. minuta, though very See also: local in its distribution, is a native of the greater See also: part of Europe, and has bred in England
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It has a close counterpart in the A. exilic of See also: North America, and is represented by three or four forms in other parts of the world, the A. pusilla of Australia especially differing very slightly from it
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Ranged by Professor Schlegel with these birds, which are all remarkable for their skulking habits, but more resembling the true herons in their nature, are the common green See also: bittern of America (A. virescens) and its very near ally the See also: African A. atricapilla, from which last it is almost impossible to distinguish the A, javanica, of wide range throughout Asia and its islands, while other species, less closely related, occur elsewhere as A. favicollis —one form of which, A. gouldi, inhabits Australia
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The true bitterns, forming the genus Botaurus of most authors, seem to be fairly separable, but more perhaps on account of their wholly nocturnal habits and correspondingly adapted plumage than on strictly structural grounds, though some differences of proportion are observable
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The common bittern (q.v.) of 2 It is the " Squacco-Heron " of See also: modern See also: British authors--the distinctive name, given " Sguacco " by See also: Willughby and Ray from Aldrovandus, having been misspelt by Latham
.
388
Europe (B. stellaris), is widely distributed over the eastern hemisphere.' Australia and New Zealand have a.kindred species, B. poeciloptilus, and North America a third, B. mugitans2 or B. lenliginosus
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Nine other species from various parts of the world are admitted by Professor Schlegel, but some of them should perhaps be excluded from the genus Botaurus
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Of the night-herons the same author recognizes six species, all of which may be reasonably placed in the genus Nyclicorax, characterized by a shorter beak and a few other peculiarities, among which the large eyes deserve mention
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The first is N. griseus, a bird widely spread over the Old World, and not unfrequently visiting England, where it would undoubtedly breed if permitted
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Professor Schlegel unites with it the common night-heron of America; but this, though very closely allied, is generally deemed distinct, and is the N. See also: naevius or N. gardeni of most writers
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A clearly different See also: American species, with a more See also: southern habitat, is the N. violaceus or N. cayennensis, while others are found in South America, Australia, some of the See also: Asiatic Islands and in West Africa
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The Galapagos have a See also: peculiar species, N. pauper, and another, so far as is known, peculiar to See also: Rodriguez, N. megacephalus, existed in that island at the time of its being first colonized, but is now See also: extinct
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The boatbill, of which only one species is known, seems to be merely a night-heron with an exaggerated bill, —so much widened as to suggest its English name, —but has al-
ways been allowed generic See also: rank
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This curious bird, the Cancroma cochlearia of most authors, is a native of tropical America, and what is known of its habits shows that they are essentially those of a Nycticorax 3
Bones of the common heron and bittern are not uncommon in the peat of the See also: East-Anglian fens
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Remains from Sansan and Langy in See also: France have been referred by Alphonse Milne-See also: Edwards to herons under the names of Ardea perplexa and A. See also: formosa; a See also: tibia from the See also: Miocene of Steinheim am Albuch by Dr See also: Fraas See also: town A. similis, while See also: Sir R
.
See also: Owen recognized a portion of a sternum from the See also: London See also: Clay as most nearly approaching this family
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It remains to say that the herons form part of See also: Huxley's section Pelargomorphae, belonging to his larger group Desmognathae, and to draw See also: attention to the singular development of the patches of " powder-down " which in the family Ardeidae attain a magnitude hardly to be found elsewhere
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Their use is utterly unknown
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(A
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