ARDEiDjE THE HERONS. 130* 



White phase. 



A dult: Prevailing color white, with the ends of several outer primaries plumbeous, the 

 plumage tinged here and there (in quantity varying with the individual) with delicate pale 

 bluish pearl-gray. Colors of the soft parts as in the blue adult. Young: Similar to the 

 adult, but with the plumes absent or but slightly developed. Bill pale lilaceous, becoming 

 gradually black on terminal third, the lores, orbits, and base of under mandible pale apple- 

 green; legs and feet uniform pea-green, lighter and brighter than in the blue phase; iris 

 Naples yellow 1 . , 



Pied, or intermediate, phase. 



The plumage mixed white and plumbeous, in proportion varying with the individual, 

 j-orming a series connecting unbrokenly the two extremes described above. 



Total length, about 26.00-25.00 inches; expanse, 40.00-42.00; wing, 9.00-10.60; tail. 5.60-4.70; 

 culmen, 2.70-3.30; depth of bill, .4S-.55; tar BUS, 3.1 5-4.00; middle toe, 2.35-2.60; bare portion of 

 tibia, 2.00-2.90. Weight, about 11-16 ounces. 



While there is evidently such a thing as an intermediate phase 

 among fully adult birds, specimens representing it appear to 

 be excessively rare. The young in blue plumage seems to be 

 equally uncommon. It may be, however, that all birds become 

 blue at some time of their existence, and it is quite certain that 

 a very great majority of the young are white, only one unques- 

 tionably young bird in blue plumage having come under my 

 notice. 



The Little Blue Heron is a common bird during the latter 

 part of summer, particularly during August, when (in 1875) 

 Mr. E. W. Nelson found it exceedingly abundant near Cairo. 

 Considerable numbers make their appearance along the Wabash 

 River, at least as far north as Mt. Carmel, and doubtless it 

 occurs generally throughout the State. 



SUBGENUS Butorides BLYTH 



Butorides "BLYTH. 1849," BONAP. Consp. ii, 1855, 128. Type, Arde a javanica HOBSP, 

 Oniscus CABAN. J. f. O. iv, 1856. 343. Type, Ardea virescena LINN. 



GEN. OHAB. Small Herons, of darkish, more or less variegated, colors, the pileum and 

 occiput crested. Bill rather stout, decidedly longer than the tarsus. Mental apex reach- 

 ing to a little less than half-way (in B. brunnescens exactly half-way) from the middle of the 

 eye to the point of the bill, and to decidedly beyond the anterior end of the nostril; malar 

 apex about even with the frontal, and decidedly posterior to the hinder end of the nostril 

 (in B. brunnescens this point falls considerably short of the frontal one). Middle toe very 

 nearly or quite equal to the tarsus (equal to it in B. javanicus, a little shorter in the 

 American forms, the difference being most marked in B. virescens) ; outer toe scarcely or 

 aot at all longer than the inner (except in B. brunnescens) ; hallux about half the length of 

 the middle toe; bare portion of tibia equal to or shorter than the hallux. 



1 Fresh colors of a specimen killed August 6. near Washington, D. C. 



