453 



ARDEA PURPUREA. THE PURPLE HERON. 



Ardea purpurea. Linn. Syst. Nat. I. 236. 



Ardea purpurea. Lath. Ind. Orn. II. 697. 



Purple Heron. Mont. Orn. Diet. 



Heron pourpre. Ardea purpurea. Tenim. Man. d'Orn. II. 570. 



Ardea purpurea. Flem. Brit. Anim. 96. 



Crested Purple Heron. Ardea purpurea. Selb. Illustr. II. 15. 



Ardea purpurea. Purple Heron. Jen. Brit. Vert. An. 186. 



Ardea purpurea. Bonap. Comp. List, 47. 



Middle toe and claw longer than the tarsus. Adult with 

 a longitudinal occipital crest of acuminate decurved feathers ; 

 neck longitudinally handed with greenish-black and light red; 

 plumage of the body greyish-blue, dark green, and light red; 

 bill yellow; feet yellow, with the scutella and claws dusky. 

 Young without elongated feathers on the head, back, or fore- 

 neck; the forehead black ; occiput reddish ; fore-neck yellow- 

 ish-white, spotted with black; feathers of the back dusky 

 grey, margined with light red; legs whitish; bill yellow, with 

 a great part of the upper mandible dusky. 



Male. — The Purple Heron, which is somewhat less than 

 the common species, is also of a more slender form, being in 

 this and in some other respects intermediate between the 

 Herons and Egrets. Its body is of moderate size, com- 

 pressed ; the neck very long and slender ; the head rather 

 small, oblong, and much compressed. The bill is very long, 

 being nearly double the length of the head, stout, com- 

 pressed, tapering ; the upper mandible with the dorsal line 

 almost straight, being but slightly decimate toward the end, 

 the ridge broad at the base, narrowed beyond the nostrils, a 

 groove from the latter to near the end, the edges sharp, 

 toward the end irregularly serrulate, the tip pointed ; lower 

 mandible with the angle very long and extremely narrow, 



