129* BIRDS OF ILLINOIS. 



Ardea cserulea Linn. 



LITTLE BLUE HERON. 



Popular synomyms. Btue Egret; Little White Heron (young); Booby (parts of Florida); 

 Garza azul (Mexico). 



A rdea ccerulea Catesby, Carolina, i, 1731, pi. 76 (blue adult). 



II won bleuatre de Cayenne Buff. PL Enl, 1770-84, pi. 319 (blue adult). 



Ardea ccerulea Linn. S. N. ed. 10. i, 1758, 143, No. 13 (ex Brown, Jam. 478; Catesby, I. c), i, 1766, 



238, No.l7— Wils. Am. Orn. vii, 1813, 117, pi. 62— Nutt. Man. ii, 1834, 58 — Aud. Orn. 



Biog. iv, 1838, 58, pi. 307; Synop. 1839, 266; B. Am. vi, 1843, 148, pi. 372— CoUES, Key, 1872, 



268; Cheek List, 1873, No. 456.— A. 0. U. Check List, 1886, No. 200— Ridgw. Man. N. Am. 



B. 1887, 130. 

 Florida ccerulea Baikd. Birds N.Am. 1858.671; Cat. N. Am. B. 1859, No. 490— Ridgw. 



Nom. N. Am. B. 1881, No. 493— Coues, Check List, 2d ed. 1882, No. 662.— B. B. & R. 



Water B. N. Am. i, 1884, 43. 

 Blue Heron, var. A. Lath. Synop. iii, 1785, 79 (blue adult. Quotes PL Enl. 349). 

 Ardea ccerulescens Lath. Ind. Orn. ii, 1790, 690, No. 49 (based on the above). 

 Le Crabier bleu a cou brun Buff. Ois. vii, 399 (blue adult). 

 Blue Heron Lath. Synop. iii, 1785, 78 (quotes Ardea ccerulea, Linn.). 

 ? Little White Heron, var. B. Lath. Synop. iii, 1785, 94 (Mexico. Probably young white 



bird). 

 Ardea ardesiacea Less. Traite, i. 1881,575 (Cayenne. Individual in pied plumage). 

 Herodias poucheti Bonap. Consp. ii, 1855, 123 (blue adult). 



"Egretta nivea" Gosse, Birds Jam. 1847, 334; Illustr. R. Jam. pi. 90 (young white bird). 

 Ardea ccerulea, var. alba, Reichenow, J. f. O. July, 1877, 264 (white phase). 

 Ardea ccerulea, var. cyanopus, Reichenow, 1. c. (intermediate, or pied, phase. Ex Ardea 



cyanopus Gmel. S. N. i. pt. ii, 1788, 644). 

 A rdea mexicana cinerea Bbiss. Orn. v, 1760, 404 (intermediate phase). 

 Ardea americana cinerea Bbiss. t. c. 406. 

 Ardea cancrophagus brasiliensis Bkiss. t. c. 479. 

 Ardea chalybea Stephens, Shaw's Gen. Z06I. xi, ii, 1819, 582. 

 A rdea cristata Mull. S. N. Suppl. 1766, 111 (based on PI. Enl. 349). 



Hab. Warm-temperate eastern North America, the whole of the West Indies and Mid- 

 dle America, and northern South America; north to Massachusetts (accidentally to Maine), 

 Illinois, Kansas, etc.; south to Colombia and Guiana. 



Colored phase. 



Adult: Head and neck rich purplish maroon, with a ghucous cast, the feathers more 

 chestnut beneath the surface; rest of the plumage uniform dark bluish plumbeous, the 

 plumes with a glaucous cast, the maroon and plumbeous gradually blended. In breeding 

 season, bill ultramarine-blue at the base, the end black; lores, eyelids, and base of bill, 

 ultramarine-blue; iris pale yellow 1 ; tibae, tarsi, and toes black (Audubon). In autumn, 

 bill light plumbeous on the basal half, the terminal half black; lores and eyelids very pale 

 dull greenish; iris sulphur-yellow; legs and feet uniform pea-green, darker at the joints 2 . 

 Young: Similar in color to the adult, but with less developed plumes, or with none at all; 

 the head and neck more plumbeous. 



1 According to Mr. W. E. D. Scott (Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, vi, 1880, p. 20), the color of the iris 

 in specimens collected March 20, when they had just begun to breed, at Clearwater, Florida,' 

 was "deep lead-color" in eleven and "brown or hazel" in another. 



2 From a fresh specimen killed August 6, near Washington, D. O. 



