SPECIES 7. ARDEA LULOVICMNA. 

 LOUISIANA HERON. 

 [Plate LXIV. Fig. 1.] 



Museum, JVo. 3750. 



THIS is a rare and delicately formed species ; occasionally 

 found on the swampy river shores of South Carolina, but more 

 frequently along the borders of. the Mississippi, particularly be- 

 low New Orleans. In each of these places it is migratory; and 

 in the latter, as I have been informed, builds its nest on trees, 

 amidst the inundated woods. Its manners correspond very much 

 with those of the Blue Heron. It is quick in all its motions, 

 darting about after its prey with surprising agility. Small fish, 

 frogs, lizards, tadpoles, and various aquatic insects, constitute 

 its principal food. 



There is a bird described by Latham in his General Synop- 

 sis, vol. iii, p. 88, called the Demi Egret * which from the 

 account there given, seems to approach near to the present spe- 

 cies. It is said to inhabit Cayenne. 



Length of the Louisiana Heron from the point of the bill to 

 the extremity of the tail twenty-three inches; the long hair-like 

 plumage of the rump and lower part of the back extends several 

 inches farther; the bill is remarkably long, measuring full five 

 inches, of a yellowish green at the base, black towards the point,. 

 and very sharp; irides yellow; chin and throat white, dotted 

 with ferruginous and some blue; the rest of the neck is of a light 

 vinous purple, intermixed on the lower part next the breast with 

 dark slate-coloured plumage; the whole feathers of the neck are 

 long, narrow and pointed; head crested, consisting first of a 



* See also Buffon, vol. vii, p, 378. 

 VOL. III. - L 



