BIRDS AND ALL NATURE. 



ILLUSTRATED BY COLOR PHOTOGRAPHY. 



VOL. VII. 



FEBRUARY, 1900. 



No. 2 



A BABY HERON. 



REST H. METCALF. 



OW many of the boys and girls 

 who read BIRDS AND ALL NA- 

 TURE ever saw a baby heron? I 

 am sure you would like to see 

 ours. He measures from tip to tip of his 

 wings, that is, with his wings spread 

 just as far as we could stretch them, 

 five feet and ten inches, and from the 

 tip of his bill to the tip of his toe very 

 nearly five feet. Now, isn't that a 

 little baby? He is nearly full-grown 

 but has not on the dress of the old birds ; 

 that is why we call him baby. He is 

 called a crane by some people, but his 

 right name is great blue heron, and his 

 scientific name is Ardea herodias. Shall 

 I tell you about his dress? His head 

 is all dusky now, but when he puts 

 on his new dress his forehead and cen 

 tral part of the crown will be white en 

 closed by a circle of black a fine black 

 crest with two elongated black plumes 

 that make him appear to be very much 

 dressed up. His back and wings are 

 blue-gray, but like his head will be 

 decorated with elongated scapulae feath 

 ers, when he gets on his dress suit, and 

 his long neck, which now has a rather 

 dingy look, will have a beautiful collar 

 of cinnamon brown tinged with purple 

 and a white line in front from throat to 

 breast. The tail is short and very incon 

 spicuous. He really is a beautiful bird 

 in spite of his long neck and long legs. 

 He is the largest of our New Eng 

 land herons and is not very abundant. 

 You may find him about large bodies 

 of water, and during the daytime he 

 prefers the solitude of the forests and 

 sits quietly in tall trees for hours, but 

 in the early mornings and late after 

 noons he may be seen standing mo 

 tionless at the edge of the water until 

 a fish or a frog appears, when, with un 

 erring stroke of his long beak, as 



quickly as lightning, he seizes it and 

 beats it until dead, then swallows it; 

 this act is often repeated. He varies 

 his diet with meadow mice, snakes, and 

 insects, so he certainly does not lead a 

 very monotonous life. Our baby ate 

 for his last breakfast four good-sized 

 perch. Wasn't that a fine breakfast? 

 I know you would like to hear about 

 his early home. It was in a terribly dis 

 mal swamp, where it was almost impos 

 sible to reach, through mud to your 

 knees and through briers and tangled 

 bushes high as your head. There, several 

 feet above your head was a nest, nearly 

 flat, made of different sizes of twigs 

 put together in a loose and lazy man 

 ner. Usually there are three or four 

 light bluish-green eggs. Only one brood 

 is reared in a season. 



There are some people who say that 

 the blue heron is good for food, but 

 those who have once tried it do not 

 care for another plate. They are the 

 most suspicious of our birds and the 

 hardest to be approached for they are 

 constantly on the lookout for danger 

 and with their long necks, keen eyes, 

 and delicate organs of hearing, they 

 can detect the approach of a hunter 

 long before he can get within gunshot. 

 They have a very unmusical voice, their 

 call being a hoarse guttural "honk." 



Once they were found in larger num 

 bers, but now are seldom seen but in 

 pairs orsingly, and what a pity that fool 

 ish fashion of trimming ladies' hats has 

 nearly exterminated so many varieties 

 of beautiful birds! God gave us many 

 beautiful things to enjoy in this world, 

 and are they not more beautiful when 

 we can see them alive in nature ju-t 

 where God placed them, than they are 

 when dead and taken by pieces to 

 adorn our heads? 



4') 



