242 



HERON TRIBE 



legf^ed, and long-toed birds which frequent marshes, and most of them 

 build large stick-nests in trees, although the bitterns nest in swamps. 

 In the British representatives of the group the eggs, which are 

 for the most part uniformly coloured, generally vary in number from 

 3 to 4 or 5. 



The heron is the tj'pical representative of the family Ardeidae, 

 which also includes the bitterns, and is characterised by the following 

 features : — The nostrils arc situated in grooves on the side of the beak, 



and their apertures in the 

 dry skull are of the oval 

 type ; the bare area in the 

 spinal region extends far 

 up on the neck ; so-called 

 p o w d e r - d o w n patches 

 formed of peculiarly brittle 

 or crumbling down-fcathcrs 

 occur on the sides of the 

 rump and breast ; the long 

 outer and middle front- 

 toes are connected to- 

 gether at the base by a 

 short web, and the under 

 side of the middle toe has 

 a comb - like structure. 

 The hind end of the lower 

 jaw is not produced back- 

 wards beyond its point of 

 articulation with the skull. 

 The family, which includes 

 HKKON. several genera, is widely 



distributed. Except the 

 bitterns, few members of the group are truly migratory birds. As a 

 rule, herons and their relatives when in flight keep the neck bent back 

 in an S-like curve, so that the head becomes situated between the 

 shoulders ; this posture being often also assumed when sitting. 



The true herons, or those included in the typical genus Ardea, 

 are characterised by having twelve feathers in the tail, by the large 

 amount of the lower end of the second segment of the leg which is 

 devoid of feathers, the length of this bare area exceeding that of the 

 inner toe and its claw, by the colour of the plumage being uniformly 

 grey above and variegated below, and by the great length of the 



