heron

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Any of various wading birds of the family Ardeidae, having a long neck, long legs, a long pointed bill, and usually white, gray, or bluish-gray plumage.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A long-legged, long-necked, long-billed, slender-bodied wading bird; any bird of the family Ardeidœ, but especially of the subfamily Ardeinœ. Herons, including egrets, bitterns, etc., have the bill cleft below the eyes, naked lores, scaly legs bare above the shank, long toes fitted for perching, a comb on the nail of the middle toe, ample rounded wings, and short tail; the plumage is loose, and often develops graceful flowing plumes, whence the name egret; a constant characteristic is the presence of two or more pairs of powder-down tracts, or patches of greasy pulviplumes. Herons are aquatic, and feed on fish and other creatures which they stalk for and capture by spearing with the sharp bill; they generally nest in trees, and lay two or three greenish, whole-colored, elliptical eggs. (See heronry.) They are nearly cosmopolitan, and include numerous species of several modern genera, such as Ardea, Herodias, Nyctiardea, and Botaurus. The common heron of Europe is Ardea cinerea, represented in America by the great blue heron, A. herodias, 3½ to 4 feet long, and nearly 6 feet in expanse. The great white heron of Florida, A. occidentalis, is still larger; the goliath heron of Africa, A. goliath, is probably the largest of all. White herons or egrets are of medium and small size. Night-herons are smaller, and green herons among the least of all. Bitterns are herons of the subfamily Botaurinæ. Boat-billed herons form the subfamily Cancrominæ. See Ardeidæ, Herodiones, and cuts under Ardea, bittern and egret.

Wiktionary

1. n. A long-legged, long-necked wading bird of the family Ardeidae.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Zoöl.) Any wading bird of the genus Ardea and allied genera, of the family Ardeidæ. The herons have a long, sharp bill, and long legs and toes, with the claw of the middle toe toothed. The common European heron (Ardea cinerea) is remarkable for its directly ascending flight, and was formerly hunted with the larger falcons.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. Greek mathematician and inventor who devised a way to determine the area of a triangle and who described various mechanical devices (first century)
2. n. grey or white wading bird with long neck and long legs and (usually) long bill