[1] The date of his travels is difficult to determine. E. Meyer
inclines to put all the longer journeys, except the Scythian, between
440 and 430 B.C. The journey to Susa and Babylon is put by C. F.
Lehmann c. 450 B.C., and by H. Stein before 450.
[2] Most recent critics (e.g. Stein, Meyer, Busolt) put the visit to
Egypt after the suppression of the revolt under Inarus and Amyrtaeus
(i.e. after 449 B.C.), on the strength of Herod. 2. 30, which implies
the restoration of Persian authority.
[3] Stein, Meyer, Busolt, and other recent writers attribute his
departure from Halicarnassus to political causes, e.g. the ascendancy
of the anti-Athenian party in the state.
[4] This story is on chronological grounds rejected by all recent
critics.
[5] Opinion is divided as to this visit to Athens after his
settlement at Thurii. Stein, Meyer and Busolt hold that much of his
work (especially the later books) was composed at Athens soon after
430 B.C. See further Wachsmuth, _Rheinisches Museum_, lvi. (1901)
215-218. Macan, _Herodotus_ VII.-IX. (_Introduction_, pp.
xlv.-lxvi.), seeks to prove that the last three books were the first
part of the _Histories_ to be composed. He is followed in this view
by Bury.
HEROET, ANTOINE, surnamed LA MAISON-NEUVE (d. 1568), French poet, was
born in Paris of a family connected with the famous chancellor, Francois
Olivier. His poetry belongs to his early years, for after he had taken
orders he ceased to write profane poetry, no doubt because he considered
it out of keeping with his calling, in which he attained the dignity of
bishop of Digue. His chief work is _La Parfaicte Amye_ (Lyons, 1542) in
which he developed the idea of a purely spiritual love, based chiefly on
the reading of the Italian Neo-Platonists. The book aroused great
controversy. La Borderie replied in _L'Amye de cour_ with a description
of a very much more human woman, and Charles Fontaine contributed a
_Contr' amye de cour_ to the dispute. Heroet, in addition to some
translations from the classics, wrote the _Complainte d'une dame
nouvellement surprise d'amour_, an _Epistre a Francois I^er_, and some
pieces included in the now very rare _Opuscules d'amour par Heroet, La
Borderie et autres divins poetes_ (Lyons, 1547). Heroet belongs to the
Lyonnese school of which Maurice Sceve may be regarded as the leader.
Clement Marot praises him, and Ronsard was careful to exempt him with
one or two others from the scorn he poured on his immediate
predecessors.
See H. F. Cary, _The Early French Poets_ (1846).
HEROIC ROMANCES, the name by which is distinguished a class of
imaginative literature which flourished in the 17th century, principally
in France. The beginnings of modern fiction in that country took a
pseudo-bucolic form, and the celebrated _Astree_ (1610) of Honore d'Urfe
(1568-1625), which is the earliest French novel, is properly styled a
pastoral. But this ingenious and diffuse production, in which all is
artificial, was the source of a vast literature, which took many and
diverse forms. Although its action was, in the main, languid and
sentimental, there was a side of the _Astree_ which encouraged that
extravagant love of glory, that spirit of "panache," which was now
rising to its height in France. That spirit it was which animated Marin
le Roy, sieur de Gomberville (1600-1674), who was the inventor of what
have since been known as the Heroical Romances. In these there was
experienced a violent recrudescence of the old medieval elements of
romance, the impossible valour devoted to a pursuit of the impossible
beauty, but the whole clothed in the language and feeling and atmosphere
of the age in which the books were written. In order to give point to
the chivalrous actions of the heroes, it was always hinted that they
were well-known public characters of the day in a romantic disguise.
In the _Astree_ of Honore d'Urfe, which was a pure pastoral, in the
religious romances of Pierre Camus (1582-1653), in the comic _Francion_
of Charles Sorel, piquancy had been given to the recital by this belief
that real personages could be recognized under the disguises. But in the
_Carithee_ of Gomberville (1621) we have a pastoral which is already
beginning to be a heroic romance, and a book in which, under a travesty
of Roman history, an appeal is made to an extravagantly chivalrous
enthusiasm. A further development was seen in the _Polyxene_ (1623) of
Francois de Moliere, and the _Endymion_ (1624) of Gombauld; in the
latter the elderly queen, Marie de' Medici, was celebrated under the
disguise of Diana, for whom a beautiful shepherd of Caria (the author
himself) nourishes a hopeless passion. The earliest of the Heroic
Romances, pure and simple, is, however, the celebrated _Polexandre_
(1629) of Gomberville. The author began by intending his hero to
represent Louis XIII., but he changed his mind, and drew a portrait of
Cardinal Richelieu. In this novel, for the first time, the romantic
character proper to this class of books is seen undiluted; there is no
intrusion of a personage who is not celebrated for his birth, his beauty
or his exploits. The story deals with the adventures of a hero who
visits all the sea-coasts of the world, the most remote as well as the
most fabulous, in search of an ineffable princess, Alcidiane. This
absurd and pretentious, yet very original piece of invention enjoyed an
immense success, and historical romances of a similar class competed for
the favour of the public. There was an equal amount of geography and
more of ancient history in the _Ariane_ (1632) of Desmarets de
Saint-Sorlin (1595-1676), a book which, long neglected, has in late
years been rediscovered, and which has been greeted by M. Paul Morillot
as the most readable and the least tiresome of all the Heroic Romances.
The type of that class of literature, however, has always been found in
the highly elaborate writings of Gauthier de Coste de la Calprenede
(1609-1663), which enjoyed for a time a prodigious celebrity, and were
read and imitated all over Europe. La Calprenede was a Gascon soldier,
imbued with all the extravagance of his race, and in full sympathy with
the audacity and violence of the aristocratic society of France in his
day. His _Cassandre_, which appeared in ten volumes between 1642 and
1645, is perhaps the most characteristic of all the Heroic Romances. It
deals with a highly romantic epoch of ancient history, the decline of
the empire of Alexander the Great. The wars of the Persians and of the
Scythians are introduced, and among the characters are discovered such
personages as Artaxerxes, Roxana and Ephestion. It must not be supposed,
however, that la Calprenede makes the smallest effort to deal with the
subject accurately or realistically. The figures are those of his own
day; they are seigneurs and great ladies of the court of Louis XIII.,
masquerading in Macedonian raiment. The passion of love is dominant
throughout, and it is treated in the most exalted and hyperbolical
spirit. The central heroes of the story, Oroondate and Lysimachus, are
dignified, eloquent and amorous; they undergo unexampled privations in
the quest of incomparable ladies whose beauty and whose nobility is only
equalled by their magnificent loyalty. These books were written with an
aim that was partly didactic. Their object was to entertain the ladies
and to gratify a taste for endlessly wire-drawn sentimentality, but it
was also to teach fortitude and grandeur of soul and to inculcate
lessons of practical chivalry. La Calprenede followed up the success of
his _Cassandre_ with a _Cleopatre_ (1647) in twelve volumes, and a
_Faramond_ (1661) which he did not live to finish. He became more
extravagant, more rhapsodical as he proceeded, and he lost all the
little hold on history which he had ever held. _Cleopatre_,
nevertheless, enjoyed a prodigious popularity, and it became the fashion
to emulate as far as possible the prowess of its magnificent hero, the
proud Artaban. It should be said that la Calprenede objected to his
books being styled romances, and insisted that they were specimens of
"history embellished with certain inventions." He may, in opposition to
his wishes, claim the doubtful praise of being, in reality, the creator
of the modern historical novel. He was immediately imitated or
accompanied by a large number of authors, of whom two have achieved a
certain immortality, which, unhappily, must be confessed to be partly of
ridicule. The vogue of the historical romance was carried to its height
by a brother and a sister, Georges de Scudery (1601-1667) and Madeleine
de Scudery (1608-1701), who represented in their own persons all the
extravagant, tempestuous and absurd elements of the age, and whose
elephantine romances remain as portents in the history of literature.
These novels--there are five of them--were signed by Georges de Scudery,
but it is believed that all were in the main written by Madeleine. The
earliest was _Ibrahim, ou l'Illustre Bassa_ (1641); it was followed by
_Le Grand Cyrus_ (1648-1653) and the final, and most preposterous member
of the series was _Clelie_ (1649-1654). The romances of Mlle de Scudery
(for to her we may safely attribute them) are much inferior in style to
those of la Calprenede. They are pretentious, affected and sickly. The
author abuses the element of analysis, and pushes a psychology, which
was beyond the age in penetration, to a wearisome and excessive extent.
Nothing, it is probable, in the whole evolution of the Historical
Romances has attracted so much attention as the "Carte de Tendre" which
occurs in the opening book of _Clelie_. This celebrated map, drawn by
the heroine in order to show the route from New Friendship to Tender,
and a geographical symbol, therefore, of the progress of love, with its
city of Tender-upon-Esteem, its sea of Enmity, its river of Inclination,
its rock-built citadel of Pride, its cold lake of Indifference, is a
miracle of elaborate and incongruous ingenuity. But, amusing as it is,
it shows into what depths of puerility the amorous casuistry of these
romances had fallen. These novels formed the chief topic of conversation
and of correspondence in the literary society which gathered at and
around the Hotel de Rambouillet, and in the personages of Mlle de
Scudery's romances could be recognized all the famous leaders of that
society. The mawkish love-making and the false heroism of these
monstrous novels went rapidly out of fashion in France soon after 1660,
when the epoch of the Heroic Romance came to an end. In England the
Heroic Romance had a period of flourishing popularity. All the principal
French examples were very promptly translated, and "he was not to be
admitted into the academy of wit who had not read _Astrea_ and _The
Grand Cyrus_." The great vogue of these books in England lasted from
about 1645 to 1660. It led, of course, to the composition of original
works in imitation of the French. The most remarkable and successful of
these was _Parthenissa_, published in 1654 by Roger Boyle, Lord Broghill
and afterwards Earl of Orrery (1621-1679), which was greatly admired by
Dorothy Osborne and her correspondents. Addison speaks in the
"Spectator" of the popularity of all these huge books, "the _Grand
Cyrus_, with a pin stuck in one of the middle leaves, _Clelie_, which
opened of itself in the place that describes two lovers in a bower."
When the drama, and in particular tragedy, was reinstituted in England,
sentimental readers found a field for their emotions on the stage, and
the heroic romances immediately began to go out of fashion. They
lingered, however, for a quarter of a century more, and M. Jusserand has
analysed what may be considered the very latest of the race, _Pandion
and Amphigenia_, published in 1665 by the dramatist, John Crowne.
See Gordon de Percel, _De l'usage des romans_ (1734); Andre Le Breton,
_Le Roman au XVII^e siecle_ (1890); Paul Morillot, _Le Roman en France
depuis 1610_ (1894); J. J. Jusserand, _Le Roman anglais au XVII^e
siecle_ (1888). (E. G.)
HEROIC VERSE, a term exclusively used in English to Indicate the rhymed
iambic line or HEROIC COUPLET. In ancient literature, the heroic verse,
[Greek: heroikon metron], was synonymous with the dactylic hexameter. It
was in this measure that those typically heroic poems, the _Iliad_ and
_Odyssey_ and the _Aeneid_ were written. In English, however, it was
not enough to designate a single iambic line of five beats as heroic
verse, because it was necessary to distinguish blank verse from the
distich, which was formed by the heroic couplet. This had escaped the
notice of Dryden, when he wrote "The English Verse, which we call
Heroic, consists of no more than ten syllables." If that were the case,
then _Paradise Lost_ would be written in heroic verse, which is not
true. What Dryden should have said is "consists of two rhymed lines,
each of ten syllables." In French the alexandrine has always been
regarded as the heroic measure of that language. The dactylic movement
of the heroic line in ancient Greek, the famous [Greek: rhythmos heroos]
of Homer, is expressed in modern Europe by the iambic movement. The
consequence is that much of the rush and energy of the antique verse,
which at vigorous moments was like the charge of a battalion, is lost.
It is owing to this, in part, that the heroic couplet is so often
required to give, in translation, the full value of a single Homeric
hexameter. It is important to insist that it is the couplet, not the
single line, which constitutes heroic verse. It is interesting to note
that the Latin poet Ennius, as reported by Cicero, called the heroic
metre of one line _versum longum_, to distinguish it from the brevity of
lyrical measures. The current form of English heroic verse appears to be
the invention of Chaucer, who used it in his _Legend of Good Women_ and
afterwards, with still greater freedom, in the _Canterbury Tales_. Here
is an example of it in its earliest development:--
"And thus the longe day in fight they spend,
Till, at the last, as everything hath end,
Anton is shent, and put him to the flight,
And all his folk to go, as best go might."
This way of writing was misunderstood and neglected by Chaucer's English
disciples, but was followed nearly a century later by the Scottish poet,
called Blind Harry (_c._ 1475), whose _Wallace_ holds an important place
in the history of versification as having passed on the tradition of the
heroic couplet. Another Scottish poet, Gavin Douglas, selected heroic
verse for his translation of the _Aeneid_ (1513), and displayed, in such
examples as the following, a skill which left little room for
improvement at the hands of later poets:--
"One sang, 'The ship sails over the salt foam,
Will bring the merchants and my leman home';
Some other sings, 'I will be blithe and light,
Mine heart is leant upon so goodly wight.'"
The verse so successfully mastered was, however, not very generally used
for heroic purposes in Tudor literature. The early poets of the revival,
and Spenser and Shakespeare after them, greatly preferred stanzaic
forms. For dramatic purposes blank verse was almost exclusively used,
although the French had adopted the rhymed alexandrine for their plays.
In the earlier half of the 17th century, heroic verse was often put to
somewhat unheroic purposes, mainly in prologues and epilogues, or other
short poems of occasion; but it was nobly redeemed by Marlowe in his
_Hero and Leander_ and respectably by Browne in his _Britannia's
Pastorals_. It is to be noted, however, that those Elizabethans who,
like Chapman, Warner and Drayton, aimed at producing a warlike and
Homeric effect, did so in shambling fourteen-syllable couplets. The one
heroic poem of that age written at considerable length in the
appropriate national metre is the _Bosworth Field_ of Sir John Beaumont
(1582-1628). Since the middle of the 17th century, when heroic verse
became the typical and for a while almost the solitary form in which
serious English poetry was written, its history has known many
vicissitudes. After having been the principal instrument of Dryden and
Pope, it was almost entirely rejected by Wordsworth and Coleridge, but
revised, with various modifications, by Byron, Shelley (in _Julian and
Maddalo_) and Keats (in _Lamia_). In the second half of the 19th century
its prestige was restored by the brilliant work of Swinburne in
_Tristram_ and elsewhere. (E. G.)
HEROLD, LOUIS JOSEPH FERDINAND (1791-1833), French musician, the son of
Francois Joseph Herold, an accomplished pianist, was born in Paris, on
the 28th of January 1791. It was not till after his father's death that
Herold in 1806 entered the Paris conservatoire, where he studied under
Catal and Mehul. In 1812 he gained the grand prix de Rome with the
cantata _La Duchesse de la Valliere_, and started for Italy, where he
remained till 1815 and composed a symphony, a cantata and several pieces
of chamber music. During his stay in Italy also Herold for the first
time ventured on the stage with the opera _La Gioventu di Enrico V._,
first performed at Naples in 1815 with moderate success. During a short
stay in Vienna he was much in the society of Salieri. Returning to Paris
he was invited by Boieldieu to collaborate with him on an opera called
_Charles de France_, performed in 1816, and soon followed by Herold's
first French opera, _Les Rosieres_ (1817), which was received very
favourably. Herold produced numerous dramatic works for the next fifteen
years in rapid succession. Only the names of some of the more important
need here be mentioned:--_La Clochette_ (1817), _L'Auteur mort et
vivant_ (1820), _Marie_ (1826), and the ballets _La Fille mal gardee_
(1828) and _La Belle au bois dormant_ (1829). Herold also wrote a vast
quantity of pianoforte music, in spite of his time being much occupied
by his duties as accompanist at the Italian opera in Paris. In 1831 he
produced the romantic opera _Zampa_, and in the following year _Le Pre
aux clercs_ (first performance December 15, 1832), in which French
_esprit_ and French chivalry find their most perfect embodiment. These
two operas secured immortality for the name of the composer, who died on
the 18th of January 1833, of the lung disease from which he had suffered
for many years, and the effects of which he had accelerated by incessant
work. Herold's incomplete opera _Ludovic_ was afterwards printed by J.
F. F. Halevy.
HERON (Fr. _heron_; Ital. _aghirone_, _airone_; Lat. _ardea_; Gr.
[Greek: erodios]: A.-S. _hragra_; Icelandic, _hegre_; Swed. _hager_;
Dan. _heire_; Ger. _Heiger_, _Reiher_, _Heergans_; Dutch, _reiger_), a
long-necked, long-winged and long-legged bird, the typical
representative of the group _Ardeidae_. It is difficult or even
impossible to estimate with any accuracy the number of species of
_Ardeidae_ which exist. Professor Hermann Schlegel in 1863 enumerated
61, besides 5 of what he terms "conspecies," as contained in the
collection at Leyden (_Mus. des Pays-Bas_, Ardeae, 64 pp.),--on the
other hand, G. R. Gray in 1871 (_Handlist_, &c. iii. 26-34) admitted
above 90, 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
_Ardea_, with 17 sub-genera. But it is difficult to separate the family,
with any satisfactory result, into genera, if structural characters have
to be found for these groups, for in many cases they run almost
insensibly into each other--though in common language it is easy to
speak of herons, egrets, bitterns, 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,
rail-like herons, little bitterns, bitterns and night-herons.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.--Heron.]
The common heron of Europe, _Ardea cinerea_ of 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, Africa and Asia,
reaching Japan, many of the islands of the Indian Archipelago and even
Australia. Though by no means so numerous as formerly in Britain, it is
still sufficiently common,[1] and there must be few persons who have not
seen it rising slowly from some river-side or marshy flat, or passing
overhead in its lofty and leisurely 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 food, consisting chiefly of fishes (especially eels
and flounders) and amphibians--though young birds and small mammals come
not amiss--wading midleg in the shallows, swimming occasionally when out
of its depth, or standing motionless to strike its prey with its
formidable and sure beak. When sufficiently numerous the heron breeds in
societies, known as heronries, which of old time were protected both by
law and custom in nearly all European countries, on account of the sport
their tenants afforded to the falconer. Of late years, partly owing to
the withdrawal of the protection they had enjoyed, and still more, it
would seem, from agricultural improvement, which, by draining meres,
fens and marshes, has abolished the feeding-places of a 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 United Kingdom, and especially in England and 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
nest vary greatly. It is generally built in the top of a lofty 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 island in a
lake, or again on a rocky cliff of the coast. 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 sea-green eggs. The young are
clothed in soft flax-coloured down, and remain in the nest for a
considerable time, therein differing remarkably from the "pipers" of the
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 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 measures about 3 ft. from the 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 lb.
Large as is the common heron of Europe, it is exceeded in size by the
great blue heron of America (_Ardea herodias_), which generally
resembles it in appearance and habits, and both are smaller than the _A.
sumatrana_ or _A. typhon_ of India and the Malay Archipelago, while the
_A. goliath_, of wide distribution in Africa and Asia, is the largest of
all. The purple heron, _A. purpurea_, as a well-known European species
having a great range over the Old World, also deserves mention here. The
species included in Professor Schlegel's second section inhabit the
tropical parts of Africa, Australasia and America. The egrets, forming
his third group, require more notice, distinguished as they are by their
pure white plumage, and, when in breeding-dress, by the beautiful
dorsal tufts of decomposed feathers that ordinarily droop over the tail,
and are so highly esteemed as ornaments by Oriental magnates. The
largest species is _A. occidentalis_, only known apparently from Florida
and Cuba; but one not much less, the great egret (_A. alba_), belongs to
the Old World, breeding regularly in 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 English authors, and _A. candidissima_;
and a sixth, _A. intermedia_, is common in India, China and Japan,
besides occurring in Australia. The group of semi-egrets, containing
some nine or ten forms, among which the 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 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 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_.[2] Nearly all these birds are tropical or
subtropical. Then there is the somewhat better defined group of little
bitterns, containing about a dozen species--the smallest of the whole
family. One of them, _A. minuta_, though very local in its distribution,
is a native of the greater part of Europe, and has bred in England. It
has a close counterpart in the _A. exilis_ of 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. 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 bittern of America (_A. virescens_) and its
very near ally the 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. flavicollis_--one form of which, _A.
gouldi_, inhabits Australia.
[Illustration: FIG. 2.--Bittern.]
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. The common bittern (q.v.) of Europe (_B. stellaris_), is
widely distributed over the eastern hemisphere.[3] Australia and New
Zealand have a kindred species, _B. poeciloptilus_, and North America a
third, _B. mugitans_[4] or _B. lentiginosus_. 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_.
Of the night-herons the same author recognizes six species, all of which
may be reasonably placed in the genus _Nycticorax_, characterized by a
shorter beak and a few other peculiarities, among which the large eyes
deserve mention. 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. 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. naevius_ or _N. gardeni_ of
most writers. A clearly different American species, with a more southern
habitat, is the _N. violaceus_ or _N. cayennensis_, while others are
found in South America, Australia, some of the Asiatic Islands and in
West Africa. The Galapagos have a peculiar species, _N. pauper_, and
another, so far as is known, peculiar to Rodriguez, _N. megacephalus_,
existed in that island at the time of its being first colonized, but is
now extinct.
[Illustration: FIG. 3.--Boatbill.]
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 always been allowed generic rank. 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_.[5]
Bones of the common heron and bittern are not uncommon in the peat of
the East-Anglian fens. Remains from Sansan and Langy in France have been
referred by Alphonse Milne-Edwards to herons under the names of _Ardea
perplexa_ and _A. formosa_; a tibia from the Miocene of Steinheim am
Albuch by Dr Fraas to an _A. similis_, while Sir R. Owen recognized a
portion of a sternum from the London Clay as most nearly approaching
this family.
It remains to say that the herons form part of Huxley's section
_Pelargomorphae_, belonging to his larger group _Desmognathae_, and to
draw attention to the singular development of the patches of
"powder-down" which in the family _Ardeidae_ attain a magnitude hardly
to be found elsewhere. Their use is utterly unknown. (A. N.)