AVES ARDEID^. 387 



The bill in nestlings is dull greenish, the iris pale straw color, and the 

 feet and legs dull sage green. 



In the many hundreds of nests of this heron that I have examined in 

 various parts of Florida, containing fledglings, I have seen only white 

 young birds as described, and I believe that all the young of Florida ccerulea 

 are white and remain so until at least the first complete moult. Most 

 birds then assume the slaty blue plumage, some are pied blue and white, 

 and a few remain almost wholly white throughout their lives. (W. E. D. S.) 



Geographical Range. — As given for the genus. Burmeister ^ speaks of 

 its having occurred on the Rio Negro, northern Patagonia. The only 

 claim the Little Blue Heron has as an element in the Patagonian Avi- 

 Fauna is this record. 



Perhaps more common about fresh water than on the salt lagoons. The 

 Little Blue Heron breeds in the characteristic heron manner, generally 

 in trees from fifteen to forty feet from the ground. Usually the rookeries 

 are composed of from twenty to forty pairs of the birds and frequently a 

 much larger number are associated together, several hundred pairs being 

 not uncommon. Many nests are often placed in the same tree close 

 together. From two to six eggs are laid, and two broods are usually 

 reared by each pair of the birds. The breeding season is a prolonged one. 



Genus NYCTICORAX T. Forster. 



Type. 



Nycticorax, T. Forster, Synop. Catal. Brit. Birds, p. 59 

 (1817); Sharpe, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus. XXVI. p. 145 

 (1898); id. Hand-List Bds. I. p. 198 (1899) . . N. nycticorax. 



Nycticardea, Swains. Classif Bds. II. p. 354(1837) . N. nycticorax. 



Scotcens, Keys. & Bias. Wirb. Eur. pp. Ixxx, 220 (1840) . N. nycticorax. 



Nycterodins, Magill, Man. Brit. Orn. II. p. 126 (1842) . N. nycticorax. 

 Geographical Range. — Nearly cosmopolitan, ranging far south, but not 



very far north. 



Nycticorax tayazu-guira (Vieillot). 



Garza parda chorreada, Azara, Apunt. III. p. 168 (1805: ?). 

 Garza tayazu-gidra, Azara, Apunt. III. p. 173 (1805 : c?). 



' C. Burmeister, An. Mus. Nacion. Buenos Aires, III. part X. p. 247, 1888. 



