LITTLE BLUE HERON. 95 



The Blue Heron may be considered almost a restricted 

 native of the warmer climates of the United States, from 

 whence it migrates at the approach of winter into the tropical 

 parts of the continent, being found in Cayenne, Mexico, and 

 the island of Jamaica. The muddy shores of the Mississippi 

 from Natchez downward are its favorite resort. 



In the course of the spring, however, a few migrate to New 

 England, restricting their visits, like many other of the tender 

 species, to the confines of the ocean and its adjoining marshes, 

 where their proper food of reptiles, worms, and insect larvae 

 abound. They also often visit the fresh-water bogs in the 

 vicinity of their eyries, and move about actively, sometimes 

 making a run at their prey. Like the Snowy Herons, with 

 which they sometimes associate, they are also, when the occa- 

 sion requires, very silent, intent, and watchful. These noc- 

 turnal and indolent birds appear tacitly to associate and breed 

 often in the same swamps, leading towards each other, no 

 doubt, a very harmless and independent life. Patient and 

 timorous, though voracious in their appetites, their defence 

 consists in seclusion, and with an appropriate instinct they 

 seek out the wildest and most insulated retreats in nature. 

 The undrainable morass grown up with a gigantic and gloomy 

 forest, imperviously filled with tangled shrubs and rank herb- 

 age, abounding with disgusting reptiles, sheltering wild beasts, 

 and denying a foot-hold to the hunter, are among the chosen 

 resorts of the sagacious Herons, whose uncouth manners, harsh 

 voice, rank flesh, and gluttonous appetite allow them to pass 

 quietly through the world as objects at once contemptible and 

 useless ; yet the part which they perform in the scale of 

 existence, in the destruction they make amongst reptiles and 

 insects, affords no inconsiderable benefit to man. 



A few of the Blue Herons, for common safety, breed among 

 the Night Herons, the Snowy species, and the Green Bittern, 

 among the cedars (or Virginian junipers) on the sea-beach of 

 Cape May. 



The Blue Egret nests regularly, though in small numbers, as 

 far north as Virginia and Illinois. An occasional straggler has 



