NORTH AMERICAN MARSH BIRDS 205 



at climbing than they appear to be. They make good use of all five 

 of their extremities in climbing, clinging with their feet, supporting 

 themselves on their wings, hooking the neck over a branch or 

 seizing it with the bill. I have seen one do what we used to call 

 the "giant swing," clinging to a branch with bill and feet. But, 

 even with all these safeguards and aids to climbing, accidents some- 

 times happen and I have seen many a dead young heron, hanging by 

 wing or foot, where it was caught and was unable to free itself. 

 Often one falls to the ground where its parents can not find it, where 

 it must starve unless some prowling fox or cat finds it and ends 

 its misery. 



Plumages. — The small downy young of this heron is partially cov- 

 ered on the upper parts with long soft down, varying in color from 

 "dark mouse gray" to "deep neutral gray"; the crown is covered 

 with long, rather coarse, whitish filaments an inch or more long; the 

 under parts are covered more sparsely with soft down, varying 

 from "dark mouse gray" on the neck to "pallid neutral gray" on 

 the belly. These colors all fade out paler with advancing age. 



Doctor Gross (1923) has described the development of the Juve- 

 nal plumages, as follows : 



The first papillae of the juvenal plumage make their appearance in the region 

 of the flanks and scapulars on the fifth or sixth day after hatching. These are 

 closely followed by the papillae of the wing coverts and of the ventral tracts. 

 By the seventh day the papillae of the alar tracts (primaries and secondaries), 

 show through the integument but those of the rectrices (tail) do not appear until 

 the bird is about 10 days old. At this age the tips of the feathers of the scap- 

 ular region and flanks are unsheathed. The primaries and secondaries present 

 their unsheathed tips about the fifteenth day, but no unsheathing takes place in 

 the rectrices imtil the bird is about three weeks old. The unsheathing when 

 once started proceeds rapidly and by the time the bird is four weeks old it has 

 the smooth contour possessed by an adult bird. The complete growth of the 

 juvenal plumage is not accomplished, however, until the bird is about 50 days 

 old. 



He describes the juvenal plumage, of an unfaded specimen 28 days 

 old, as follows: 



Crown and back glossy olivaceous black, neck Chaetura drab, the feathers with 

 median streaks of varying shades of bufT. The median streaks in the feathers 

 of the back are of a richer and deeper color approaching very nearly that of cin- 

 namon. The apices of the crown feathers have filaments of natal down but the 

 remainder of the juvenal plumage is entirely free of vestiges of this first plum- 

 age. The throat with an elongated median patch of white tinged with ivory 

 yellow which extends posteriorly to the neck. Sides of chin, head and neck 

 streaked with Chaetura drab, fuscous-black, and various shades of buff. Feath- 

 ers of the breast, upper belly, and flanks white tinged with light cartridge buff, 

 each feather with Inroad lateral streaks or bands of light fuscous or hair brown. 

 Lower belly and crissum white and not streaked. Tail feathers deep mouse gray, 

 primaries and secondaries fuscous black, tipped with white and with outer veins 

 tinged with cinnamon. The white tips of the secondaries are much reduced and 



