62 BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



Ardea coerulea LINN. 



Little Blue Heron ; Little White Heron. 



DESCRIPTION.* 



Bill about three inches long, and quite slender. 



Adult (blue phase), breeding plumage. Bill and lores bluish, former black to- 

 wards end ; the long, narrow and pointed dorsal plumes extend sometimes several 

 inches beyond the tail ; legs and feet black ; eyes yellow ; head and neck "purplisn- 

 red or maroon colored," top of head and fine hair-like crest, bluish with purplish 

 reflections ; lower part of neck and rest of plumage slate-blue (quite light in some 

 birds and dark in others) ; some specimens have sooty-black streaks or patches on 

 back and most of belly. In fifteen of these herons I find ten have a blue streak 

 more or less complete extending down front of neck ; one has throat bluish and 

 white ; theother four have necks without these streaks, and as previously described 



Adult (blue and white or intermediate phase). Four birds show about the fol- 

 lowing coloration : Top of head, most of occipital crest, patches on the sides and back 

 of neck, most of the forepart of back (usually rather continuous on back), tips of 

 primaries, some of long neck plumes, also a few of the long dorsal plumes, different 

 shades of bluish ; remainder of plumage white ; bill chiefly bluish black (one has 

 yellowish streak on maxilla) ; bluish-yellow about lores and eyes ; legs bluish-black ; 

 eyes yellowish. One bird has greater part of back, several large wing feathers, and 

 a number oi the long dorsal plumes which extend beyond the tail, entirely slaty- 

 blue ; primaries faintly tipped with dusky-blue ; the top of head and occipital crest, 

 light blue ; single maroon feathers, small patches of a like color appear on head and 

 neck. 



Adult (white phase). Two birds : Bill, lores and legs (dried skin) bluish-black ; 

 eye.s yellow ; ends of outer quills bluish ; top of head and parts of neck with a faint 

 bluish tint ; rest of plumage pure white. 



Young. Bill greenish yellow from base to about half its length ; under surface of 

 lower mandible yellowish, rest of both mandibles blackish ; lores greenish-blue ; 

 eyes yellow ; legs greenish or bluish-yellow ; ends of several primaries dusky-blue, 

 rest of plumage pure white. 



Habitat. New Jersey, Illinois and Kansas, southward through Central America 

 and the West Indies to Guiana and New Grenada ; casually north on Atlantic coast 

 to Massachusetts and Maine. 



This little heron is said to be more diurnal in its habits than others 

 of its family. Its food, collected principally in the daytime, according 

 to different writers, consists of fish, frogs, tadpoles, worms, lizards, small 

 crabs and various kinds of insect-life. Thirty-one of these herons, which 

 I obtained in different parts of Florida, in March and April, 1885, were 

 found to have fed almost exclusively on small fishes. Twenty-six of 

 these birds had only the remains of fish in their viscera. Two others 

 had eaten frogs and insects ; two, insects only, and the remaining bird 

 had in its stomach two small frogs, a few fish bones and scales, with hair 

 of a small mammal. The nest and eggs of the Little Blue Heron are 

 very similar to those of the Louisiana Heron. This bird, according to 

 my experience, is found in Pennsylvania as a casual visitor in the late 

 summer, or early autumn. During the last ten years I have seen two 

 or three (all young) which were taken in the southeastern part of the 



* From twenty six specimens; one (young) captured August, 1875, in Pennsylvania, the others taken 

 when breeding, in Orange county, Fla. , March, 1885. 



