The GIANT HERON (_Ardea Goliath_) is a powerful bird, of about fifty-two inches long and seventy-one inches broad; the wing measures twenty-one and the tail eight inches. Upon the head, upper neck, centre of breast, and belly, the plumage is brownish red; the back and upper breast are dark grey, and the throat and gullet white; the eyes are yellow, the eye-rings violet, and the bridles green; the upper mandible is black, and lower one violet tipped with greenish yellow; the foot is black. This species leads a solitary life upon the shores of the fresh-water lakes and streams of Central Africa. In disposition it is extremely shy; it flies badly, has a harsh loud voice, and subsists upon fish, reptiles, birds, and small quadrupeds. In other respects it closely resembles the _Ardea cinerea_. We are entirely without particulars respecting its habits. [Illustration: THE GREAT WHITE HERON (_Herodias alba_). ONE-SIXTH NATURAL SIZE.] [Illustration: _Plate 34. Cassell's Book of Birds_ BUPHUS COMATA ____ SQUACCO HERON (_about ½ Nat. size_)] * * * * * 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. [Illustration: 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 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