L I T T L E EGRET.
A rd e a garzetta, L in n .
L e Héron garzette.
The Little Egret can scarcely be considered as having a decided claim to a place in the British Fauna ; for,
although one or two instances are upon record o f its having been captured within the boundaries o f our Island
during the last half-century, still we do not know what degree o f credit is to be attached to these accounts,
as it is one o f those birds respecting which much confusion has hitherto prevailed. The statements o f its
having been served up in such abundance at various feasts in the fifteenth century, recorded by the writers of
that period, must be received with some degree o f caution, for it is more than probable that the name was
then given to another bird :— however this may be, the Little Egret is now found only in the southern portion
o f Europe, especially the countries adjacent to Asia and the Mediterranean ; a few, however, migrate
periodically into France, and occasionally also into Germany; but Sicily, Sardinia,'Turkey in Europe, and the
Islands o f the Grecian Archipelago constitute its true habitat. Hence passing southwards and eastwards, it
is abundantly spread through the temperate and warmer regions o f Asia, and throughout the whole o f Africa,
but never occurs in the continent o f America, where its place is supplied by a species closely allied, indeed,
but possessing characters which sufficiently distinguish it. The young have been described by many authors
as a distinct species, under the name o f the “ L ittle White Heron,” because being destitute until the third
year o f the slender graceful plumes from the back and the occiput, it was supposed that the birds could not
be identical ; this is now disproved. There is, however, a “ Little White Heron ” noticed by Montagu which
is truly a distinct species, and the specimen he described from, the only one known to have been taken in
England, is now in the British Museum.
But it is not the plumage o f the young birds only that has led to confusion, for the adult birds lose their
ornamental plumes after the autumn moult. Hence Buffon, who calls this bird in full feather “ L ’A igrette,”
gives to it when unadorned the name o f “ L a Garzette blanche.”
The food o f the Little Egret, like that o f its congeners, consists o f the reptiles and insects peculiar to the
morasses among which it dwells, to which fishes and molluscous animals are also added.
Latham states, that in Egypt it is called the “ Ox-keeper,” from its frequenting plains where the herds o f
cattle are pasturing, and that it is seen “ often perching on the backs o f these animals to feast on the lame
o f CEstrus which infest them.”
It is said to make its nest among the herbage o f morasses, and to lay five white eggs.
The colour o f the plumage is a pure white. In the adult birds, at least during the breeding season, the
occiput is.ornamented with a pendent crest o f two and sometimes three long narrow feathers, and a range o f
slender hair-like feathers is continued down the back o f the neck ; from the top o f the back arise three ranges
o f plume-like feathers six or eight inches long, with waving shafts fine and tapering and thinly set with silky
slender barbs, forming a light flowing plume ; the beak is black ; the naked skin round the eyes olive green ;
irides bright yellow ; tarsi greenish black except at their lower part, where as well as on the toes the colour
is greenish yellow. Length one foot eight or ten inches.
We have figured an adult in full plumage, and about two thirds o f its natural size.