HERONS, EGRETS, AND BITTERNS: Family Atdeidae [ 105 ] 



Wherever it occurs in Oregon, this gaunt fisherman suffers much at the 

 hands of sportsmen who persecute the entire tribe out of a feeling of 

 resentment toward any competition, real or imaginary, for the supply of 

 fish. As a matter of fact, there is little scientific basis for their belief in 

 this bird's enormous destruction of game fish. Stomach examinations 

 show that an overwhelming percentage of the food is trash fish, such as 

 suckers, carp, and chubs, together with frogs, crayfish, and other aquatic 

 forms of life. A little careful thinking would show without question 

 that this is logical. With the heron, it is not a question of selecting a 

 certain type offish because of its sporting proclivities but rather entirely 

 a question of procuring a meal. It is therefore to be expected that in a 

 stream containing slow-moving fish, often in numbers greater than the 

 game fish, the heron would find it much easier and just as satisfactory to 

 take the former. This is exactly what happens over the greater part of 

 the State, although around a trout or salmon hatchery our elongated 

 subjects are not at all averse to helping themselves to the fish so con- 

 veniently confined for them. Not only do they eat fish, but they can often 

 be found far from water successfully hunting such tidbits as snakes, 

 meadow mice, and other small mammals. 



California Heron; Blue Heron; Blue Crane: 



Ardea herodias hyferonca Oberholser 



DESCRIPTION. "Adults: Upper parts bluish gray; top of head white, bordered by 

 black and with black occipital crest; shoulders black, striped with white; under 

 parts heavily streaked with black and white; thighs and edge of wings cinnamon 

 brown. In breeding season: crest with two or more slender white plumes. Young: 

 whole crown and crest black; wing coverts without white or rufous spots." (Bailey) 

 Sz%e: Wing i8.62.-i9. 5, bill 5.41-5.70, tarsus 6.70-7.41. Nest: In western Oregon, 

 usually a bulky mass of sticks in tall trees, the eggs being laid in a hollow in the 

 platform. Eggs: 3 to 6, dull greenish blue (Plates 16, B, and 17, A). 

 DISTRIBUTION. General: Breeds on Pacific Coast from western Oregon to San Diego, 

 California. Winters in about same territory. In Oregon: Permanent resident west 

 of Cascades. Recorded in every county in that section, either in our own notes or 

 published literature. 



THIS ELONGATED blue-gray fisherman 4 feet of legs, slender body, and 

 long neck terminating in a javelinlike beak is without doubt the most 

 widely known water bird in Oregon. Every creek, however small, and 

 every pond, however well hidden, are likely to be visited at intervals 

 either by this form or the preceding one found east of the Cascades. The 

 ungainly appearance of the California Heron in the air and its large size 

 combine to call it to the attention of the least observant. Townsend 

 (1839) and Newberry (1857) both recorded it, and almost all ornithol- 

 ogists since have noted its presence. Numerous breeding colonies have 

 been reported the best known in western Oregon undoubtedly being the 



