Europe (B. stellaris), is widely distributed over the eastern hemisphere.[1] Australia and New Zealand have a kindred species, B. poeciloptilus, and North America a third, B. mugitans[2] 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.
 |
| Fig. 3.—Boatbill. |
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.
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.[3]
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.)
HERPES (from the Gr. ἕρπειν, to creep), an inflammation of the true skin resulting from a lesion of the underlying nerve or its ganglion, attended with the formation of isolated or grouped vesicles of various sizes upon a reddened base. They contain a clear fluid, and either rupture or dry up. Two well-marked varieties of herpes are frequently met with. (a) In herpes labialis et nasalis the eruption occurs about the lips and nose. It is seen in cases of certain acute febrile ailments, such as fevers, inflammation of the lungs or even in a severe cold. It soon passes off. (b) In the herpes zoster, zona or “shingles” the eruption occurs in the course of one or more cutaneous nerves, often on one side of the trunk, but it may be on the face, limbs or other parts. It may occur at any age, but is probably more frequently met with in elderly people. The appearance of the eruption is usually preceded by severe stinging neuralgic pains for several days, and, not only during the continuance of the herpetic spots, but long after they have dried up and disappeared, these pains sometimes continue and give rise to great suffering. The disease seldom recurs. The most that can be done for its relief is to protect the parts with cotton wool or some dusting powder, while the pain may be allayed by opiates or bromide of potassium. Quinine internally is often of service.
HERRERA, FERNANDO DE (c. 1534–1597), Spanish lyrical
poet, was born at Seville. Although in minor orders, he addressed
many impassioned poems to the countess of Gelves, wife of Alvaro
Colon de Portugal; but it is suggested that these should be
regarded as Platonic literary exercises in the manner of Petrarch.
As is shown by his Anotaciones á las obras de Garcilaso de la Vega
(1580), Herrera had a boundless admiration for the Italian
poets, and continued the work of Boscán in naturalizing the
Italian metrical system in Spain. His commentary on Garcilaso
involved him in a series of literary polemics, and his verbal
innovations laid him open to attack. But, even if his amatory
sonnets are condemned as insincere in sentiment, their workmanship
is admirable, while his odes on the battle of Lepanto, on
Don John of Austria, and the elegy on King Sebastian of Portugal
entitle him to rank as the greatest of Andalusian poets and as the
most important of the followers of Garcilaso de la Vega (see
Vega). His poems were published in 1582, and reprinted with
additions in 1619; they are reissued in the Biblioteca de autores
españoles, vol. xxxii. Of Herrera’s prose works only the Vida y
muerta de Tomas Moro (1592) survives; it is a translation of the
life in Thomas Stapleton’s Tres Thomae (1588).
Bibliography.—E. Bourciez, “Les Sonnets de Fernando de Herrera,” Annales de la Faculté des Lettres de Bordeaux (1891); Fernando de Herrera, controversia sobre sus anotaciones á les obras de Garcilaso de la Vega (Seville, 1870); A. Morel-Fatio, L’Hymne sur Lépante (Paris, 1893).
HERRERA, FRANCISCO (1576–1656), surnamed el Viejo (the
old), Spanish historical and fresco painter, studied under Luis
Fernandez in Seville, his native city, where he spent most of his
life. Although so rough and coarse in manners that neither
scholar nor child could remain with him, the great talents of
Herrera, and the promptitude with which he used them, brought
him abundant commissions. He was also a skilful worker in
bronze, an accomplishment that led to his being charged with
coining base money. From this accusation, whether true or
false, he sought sanctuary in the Jesuit college of San Hermenegildo,
which he adorned with a fine picture of its patron saint.
Philip IV., on his visit to Seville in 1624, having seen this picture,
and learned the position of the artist, pardoned him at once, warning
him, however, that such powers as his should not be degraded.
In 1650 Herrera removed to Madrid, where he lived in great honour
till his death in 1656. Herrera was the first to relinquish the
timid Italian manner of the old Spanish school of painting, and
to initiate the free, vigorous touch and style which reached such
perfection in Velazquez, who had been for a short time his pupil.
His pictures are marked by an energy of design and freedom of
execution quite in keeping with his bold, rough character. He is
said to have used very long brushes in his painting; and it is also
said that, when pupils failed, his servant used to dash the colours
on the canvas with a broom under his directions, and that he
worked them up into his designs before they dried. The drawing
- ↑ The last-recorded instance of the bittern breeding in England was in 1868, as mentioned by Stevenson (Birds of Norfolk, ii. 164).
- ↑ Richardson, a most accurate observer, asserts (Fauna Boreali-Americana, ii. 374) that its booming (whence the epithet) exactly resembles that of its Old-World congener, but American ornithologists seem only to have heard the croaking note it makes when disturbed.
- ↑ The very wonderful shoe-bird (Balaeniceps) has been regarded by many authorities as allied to Cancroma; but there can be little doubt that it is more nearly related to the genus Scopus belonging to the storks. The sun-bittern (Eurypyga) forms a family of itself, allied to the rails and cranes.
