The slender contour of this bird, its arching purple neck, its filamentous crown-plumes, and the long pointed scapulars arching down over its back, combine with its graceful motions and delicate hue, to give this bird an aspect of peculiar elegance. Less suspicious than most of its tribe, it will frequently allow the beholder to stand and admire it, without alarm, as it stands in some shallow stream, or secluded pool, intent on its occupation, while the glassy surface gives back its beautiful form, unbroken. Its motions are deliberate and slow while watching for prey; yet its seizure of prey is sudden, and as quick as the lightning-flash. It feeds principally on small crabs and prawns; which I have always found changed in appearance, by the process of digestion; the shell reddened and the flesh coagulated, as if by boiling. In one I have found a number of minute eel-like fishes, about an inch and a quarter long, probably the fry of a _muræna_; in another, insects. It is usually found excessively fat. A specimen, shot from a tree, fell into rather deep water; and though one foot was disabled, it struck out vigorously with the other, and _swam_ in an upright posture, with the head drawn back (_not struggling_,) several yards, before it was seized. It is not common enough for me to determine whether it is migratory or not; I have obtained specimens on the 16th of September and on the 9th of April, and through the intervening winter. RED-NECKED GAULIN.[101] _Egretta ruficollis._—+Mihi.+ [101] Length 25¹⁄₂ inches, expanse 36¹⁄₂, flexure 9³⁄₄, neck 10, tail 2¹⁄₂, rictus 4¹⁄₂, tarsus 4, middle toe 3¹⁄₄. Irides cream-white; lores deep fulvous, with an oblong dusky spot near the edge of upper mandible; beak, black above, clay-colour beneath; feet dull pea-green. Crown, cheeks, and neck pale brick-red, mingled with dark grey feathers. Back ashy-grey, with pale reddish tips; scapulars and quills blue-grey; coverts grey with red tips, almost wholly red towards the edge of the wing. Rump and tail-coverts white. Tail dark grey. Chin, throat, and whole under parts yellowish-white, but down the front of neck an irregular series of rufous feathers, forming dashes on the white; and a few blackish feathers on the breast. I first met with this undescribed species in a little excursion up the beautiful Burnt Savanna River, on the 25th of November. The immense morass through which it flows, looking like a sea of rushes, relieved here and there by clumps of the tall and slender palmetto, affords shelter and sustenance to immense numbers of aquatic birds, in common with Black River, of which this is a main branch. Of this species of Gaulin, which is not remarkable for beauty, the only specimen, besides, that I met with, was shot by Sam, at Bluefields Creek, on the 7th of May. Both individuals had been feeding on a small species of _Gobius_, called mud-fish.