ARDEID.E — THE HERONS — ARDEA. 19 



the eggs nor the young, until the latter are able to use their bills well for defence, 

 are ever left by both birds at once. Copulation takes place in the nest. 



Both parents incubate, and both bring food to the young. After these are able to 

 strike with their bills, the old birds spend little time with them, or even in sight. 

 The eagerness and the dash of the bill of a hungry nestling, as Avell as its powerful 

 gripe, are interesting peculiarities. The struggle between the young Heron and the 

 parent seems like a wrestling-match, the former standing up almost as high as the 

 latter, the tree swaying to and fro, and both birds staggering upon the nest, to such 

 an extent that the mother is occasionally compelled to step off and stand on one of 

 the branches, to avoid falling. This struggle occurs when all the food has been given, 

 and the mother is seeking to extricate her bill from that of her young. On one occa- 

 sion Mr. Moore saw one of the parents, after having fed its young, pick up a good- 

 sized eel from the nest, deliberately swallow it, and then fly away. 



This species is never known to run, or even to walk briskly ; and it never rakes 

 the bottom for its food. It is sometimes seen in the water watching for its prey at 

 two o'clock in the morning. It often feeds on sirens, eating the posterior portion only 

 of the larger ones. In very cold winters many more are seen in Florida than in milder 

 seasons. After swallowing a good-sized fish, it drinks by dipping its bill into the 

 water from one to five times. The larger the fish, the more water it drinks. Mv. 

 Moore has seen one take a large fish that lay flirting its tail, and fly two hundred 

 yards before laying it on the sand. On being approached the bird again carried it 

 off as before. In catching fish this Heron usually strikes its prey through the body. 

 Now and then it is said to strike at a fish so large and strong as to endanger its own 

 life. Audubon was a witness to an incident of this kind, where a Heron, on the 

 Florida coast, after striking a fish, was dragged several yards, and was able to dis- 

 engage itself only after a severe struggle. This species is said to take three years 

 in attaining maturity ; and even after that period it gains in size and weight. When 

 first hatched it has a very grotesque appearance : the legs, neck, and bill seem dis- 

 proportionately long, and it is nearly bare. It is soon covered with a silky down of 

 dark gray color. 



In Florida the number of its eggs is nearly uniformly three ; but farther north the 

 number increases to four or five, and in a few instances to six. The egg resembles, 

 in its rounded oval shape and in its color, the eggs of most of the Heron family. 

 This color is uniform and unspotted, and is a faint wash of a greenish Prussian blue. 

 The eggs vary somewhat in size, and some are more oblong in shape than others ; 

 eggs from Florida are noticeably smaller than those from Massachusetts. Three 

 in my cabinet exhibit the following measurements : No. 60, from Grand Menan, 

 2.50 X 1.80 inches; No. 61, from aSTaushon, Mass., 2.50 x 1.70; and No. 977, from Cape 

 Charles, Va., 2.57 X 1.80 inches. 



Ardea cinerea. 



THE COMMON HERON OF EUROPE. 



Ardea cinerea, Lixn. Faun. Si;ec. 1746, 59 ; S. N. I. 170(3, 236. — Fabr. Faun. Groenl. 1780, 106 

 (Greenland). — Gmel. S. N'. I. ii. 1788, 627. — Naum. Vcig. Deutselil. IX. 1838, 24, pi. 220. — 

 Gould, B. Eur. 1837, pi. 273. — Roxap. Consp. II. 1855, 111. — Keys. & Blas. AVirb. Eur. 

 1840, 79. — Maccull. Man. Brit. Orn. II. 1842, 128. —Gray, Cat. Brit. B. 1863, 145.— 

 Reixh. Ibis, 1861, 9 (Nenortalik, Greenland). — RiDciW. Nom. iST. Am. B. 1881, no. 488.— 

 COUES, Check List, 2d ed. 1S82, no. 657. 



Ardea major, Lixx. S. X. I. 1766, 236. 



