what kind of bird was this?

My dad was walking in the woods in Delaware, and he saw the weirdest bird. It was entirely white, and about the size of a peacock except without those crazy tail feathers, and it had those little awkward feathers on that stick up its head... basically like this-

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b3...

except entirely white, and in the mid atlantic united states. it also had two little chicks with it, so there had to be a male around too. possibly more! but when we looked in the Audubon book of north american birds, we found nothing. what could it be/how could it have gotten there?