408 THE GREAT BLUE HERON. 
and sides bright plumbeous; lores blue; upper mandible yellowish-olive, blackening 
on ridge; lower mandible yellow; feet and legs black. ‘The occipital crest of the 
male contains two, much elongated, filamentous, deciduous feathers during the 
breeding season. IJmmature: Similar, but top of head entirely black; without 
specially colored or lengthened feathers on neck, sides of breast, or scapulars ; 
upper parts inclined to fuscous; under parts with slaty and ochraceous in addition 
to black and white; feathers on bend of wing and thighs lighter, or vinaceous- 
rufous. Young in first plumage: Brownish-fuscous above, streaked and spotted 
with buffy and whitish, narrowly on head and neck; below white, streaked with 
fuscous and buffy. Juvenile plumages vary interminably within these general 
limits, but the bird is unmistakable. Length 42.00-50.00 (1066.8-1270.) ; extent 
about 70.00 (1930.4) ; wing 18.00-20.00 (457.2-508.) ; tail 8.25 (209.6) ; bill 5.00- 
6.00 (127.-152.4) ; tarsus about 7.00 (177.8) ; middle toe and claw 5.00 (127.). 
Recognition Marks.—Eagle size; great size and bluish cast of plumage 
unmistakable. 
Nest, a bunch or platform of sticks placed high in trees or, rarely, on cliffs. 
Eggs, 3 or 4, pale blue. Av. size 2.50 x 1.50 (63.5 x 38.1). 
General Range.—North America from the Arctic regions southward to the 
West Indies and northern South America. Bermudas; Galapagos. 
Range in Ohio.—Common migrant; not common summer resident. The 
well-known heronries of former years are much reduced in numbers. 
IF we were to listen to the French modistes we should soon have no 
Herons. But fortunately a saner spirit from the far east is beginning to 
touch us, and we are being made to realize that the beauty of the Heron 
belongs to the landscape as God made it, rather than to a woman’s hat as 
milliners distort it. ‘The Japanese have found in the Heron an inexhaust- 
ible motif for decorative art, and it is noteworthy that their treatment of 
it, on vases and screens or in mural decorations, always gives it its proper 
place as the central feature, or at least the finishing touch, of the landscape. 
The Great Blue Heron is, with us, the largest of its kind, and while 
not exactly graceful on the one hand, nor majestic on the other, it presents 
that peculiar combination of the two which we recognize as picturesque. 
While standing knee-deep in the water of some pond or stream, awaiting 
its customary prey of minnows or frogs, it may remain for an hour as mo- 
tionless as a bronze statue; then with a movement like lightning, the head 
is drawn back and suddenly shot downward, and a wriggling fish is trans- 
fixed on the spear-like beak. A deft toss of the head puts the fish up and 
transfers it to the inside, and the bird moves with quiet, measured step to 
another station, or else rises heavily with slow flaps into the air. In full 
flight the Heron stretches its legs to the greatest extent behind; and the 
neck, especially when the bird is sailing, is carried like the letter S or Z, 
so that the lower part is brought parallel to the long bill, and the bird looks 
like a strato-cumulus cloud floating in space. 
Besides frequenting our inland ponds and water-ways, the Herons find 
