190 



BIRDS OF AMERICA 



ticularly on small wooded or busliy islands, where 

 such can be found. On the Louisiana Coast 

 reservations, where tlie islands were treeless, 

 these Herons were content to nest directly on the 

 ground, or on the smallest of bushes, sometimes 

 hardly a foot up. The nests are frail ]ilat forms 



Photo by 1 1 



LOUISIANA HERON 

 On nest on ground 



of sticks, and are similar to those of most other 

 Herons, as are their eggs, which are blue, rather 

 small, and from three to five in number. 



On various occasions I have pitched my little 

 photogra])hic tent among their nests, preferably 



at night, leaving it till morning, when I would 

 enter it and have a companion withdraw. The 

 birds had soon become accustomed to it as a part 

 of the landscape, and, not being able to " count 

 noses," would soon return and settle down to 

 brood their eggs or small young, or would come 

 to feed the latter. It was most interesting and 

 exciting to sit there, as though a member of the 

 tribe, and watch all the singular, remarkable 

 waj's and actions, selecting the quaintest of these 

 for photographic records. 



These rookeries are the more interesting in 

 that it is usual for various species of Herons to 

 congregate together. In such colonies I have 

 found, besides representatives of this species, the 

 Snowy and American Egrets, Black-crowned and 

 Yellow-crowned Night Herons, Little Blue and 

 Great Blue Herons — certainly a lively assort- 

 ment. Since, however, the Louisiana Heron is 

 the most abundant of all, there are plenty of 

 rookeries, especially the smaller ones, where it 

 is found alone. In such places there is the 

 wildest of confusion when one enters. The 

 larger young climb from the nests from branch 

 to branch, using both bills and feet to aid them. 

 The less said about cleanliness and odor the 

 better. Yet despite their slovenly ways it is 

 remarkable how clean and trim the Herons look ! 

 They spend hours preening their feathers, so 

 that, after all, in their own peculiar way they are 

 orderly. 



Most of them retire beyond our borders in 

 winter, but on the Gulf coast I have seen a few 

 of them at that season, still wading in the shal- 

 lows and striking swiftly with their sharp bills at 

 the small fish and other aquatic forms which 

 constitute their bill of fare. Herbert K. Job. 



LITTLE BLUE HERON 

 Florida caerulea (LiiiiKcus) 



A. O. U. Number 200 



Other Name. — Blue Egret. 



Description. — Plumes on shoulders and throat. Old 

 Adults : General plumage, dark slaty-blue shading to 

 purplish-red on neck and head ; bill, black shading to 

 bluish at base ; legs and feet, black ; iris, yellow. Young 

 Adults: In perfect plumage, pure white, but usually 

 showing traces of blue, especially on end of primaries. 

 Length, 24 inches. 



Nest and Eggs. — Nest: In trees or bushes over or 



near swamps; constructed like those of the rest of the 

 genus. Eggs: 2 to 4, bluish-green. 



Distribution. — North and South America ; formerly 

 bred from Missouri, Indiana, Illinois, and New Jersey 

 to western Mexico and south to .-Argentina and Peru : 

 in the United States now breeds locally on the coast 

 from North Carolina to Te.xas ; wanders casually to 

 Nebraska, Wisconsin, Ontario, New England, and Nova 

 Scotia : winters from South Carolina southward. 



