168 BULLETIN 135; UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



their festoons of Spanish moss, the stately cabbage palmettos, so sug- 

 gestive of the Tropics, and here and there a Spanish bayonet in full 

 bloom, shedding its fragrance from a pyramid of white blossoms; the 

 thickets of saw palmettos, the various orchids and air plants on the 

 old trees were all new and interesting to me. Finally I came to a 

 little, muddy pool in an open glade and sat down behind some saw 

 palmettos to watch a little flock of yellowlegs feeding in the pool. 

 A passing shadow caused me to look up and there on silent wings a 

 larger bird was sailing down to alight in the pool, my first glimpse of 

 a Louisiana heron at short range. It was totally unaware of my pres- 

 ence and within a few feet of me. Soon another came and then an- 

 other, until there were five of them. What beautiful, dainty creatures 

 they were, their slender forms clothed in bluish gray, blended drabs, 

 purples, and white, with their little white plumes as a nuptial head 

 dress. How agile and graceful they were as they darted about in pur- 

 suit of their prey. With what elegance and yet with what precision 

 every movement was made. For harmony in colors and for grace in 

 motion this little heron has few rivals. I could have watched and 

 admired them for hours, but the rattle of a dry leaf, as I moved, ended 

 my reverie, for they were gone. But I shall never forget my first im- 

 pression of this elegant "lady of the waters." 



Courtship. — In its com'tship this dainty little heron is most attrac- 

 tive; though it lacks the wealth of glorious white plumes displayed 

 by the American and snowy egrets, and though it can not throw out 

 the bristling array of plumage shown by the reddish egret, still it has a 

 gi'ace of action and beauty of plumage peculiar to itself. Perched on 

 the topmost bough of some low tree or bush, the male bows to his 

 mate, his long slender form swaying in the breeze, bending in long 

 graceful curves and yielding to the pressure of the wind, as if ho were 

 a part of the tree itself. Like a "reed shaken by the wind " he bends, 

 but does not break; and he never loses his balance. And now he 

 dances along from branch to branch toward his mate, bowing and 

 courtesying, with wings half spread. Many are the pretty attitudes 

 that he assumes, with many graceful curves of his long slender neck. 

 The plumes on his back are raised and lowered, like a filmy veil of ecru 

 drab, and the pure white head plumes are raised and spread like a 

 fan, in striking contrast to the blue and drab. It is a picture of irre- 

 sistible beauty; his mate finally yields and the conjugal pact is sealed 

 right there on the tree tops, without loss of poise. 



Behavior, similar to that seen in courtship, is indulged in by the 

 Louisiana heron, and by other herons, aU through the nesting period, 

 as a form of greeting between mates, in the ceremony of nest reUef, 

 and when approaching the young to feed them. Prof. Julian S. Hux- 

 ley, who has made a special study of such sexual behavior, has sent 

 me a number of photographs illustrating it and some very full notes 



