348 ELEMENTARY ZOOLOGY 



monly seen perching on an overhanging limb, or flying 

 slowly up or down some small stream. The great blue 

 heron (Ardea herodias) is common over the whole 

 country. It is four feet long and grayish blue, marked 

 with black and white. It may be seen standing alone in 

 wet meadows or pastures, or flying heavily, with head 

 drawn back and long legs outstretched. It breeds 

 singly, but oftener in great heronries, in trees or bushes. 

 Its large bulky nests contain three to six dull, greenish- 

 blue eggs about two and one-half inches long. The white 

 egrets of the Southern States are shot for their plumes and 

 have been locally exterminated in some places. The 

 night-herons (Nycticorax) differ from the other forms in 

 having both the neck and legs short. The bittern 

 (Botatirus lentiginosus), Indian hen, stake-driver, or 

 thunder-pumper, as it is variously called, is a familiar 

 member of the order, found in marshes and wet pastures, 

 and known by its extraordinary call, sounding like the 

 * ' strokes of a mallet on a stake. ' ' In color it is brownish, 

 freckled and streaked with tawny whitish and blackish. 

 Its nest is made on the ground; its eggs, from three to 

 five in number, are brownish drab and about two inches 

 long. 



The cranes, rails, and coots (Paludicolae). The cranes, 

 of which three species are known in North America, are 

 large birds with long legs and neck, part of the head being 

 naked or with hair-like feathers. The rare whooping 

 crane (Grus americana) is pure white with black on the 

 wings, and is fifty inches long from tip of bill to tip of 

 tail. The sand-hill crane (G. mexicana) is slaty gray or 

 brownish in color, never white, and although rare in the 

 East is quite common in the South and West. Cranes 

 build nests on the ground, and lay but two eggs, about 

 four inches long, brownish drab in color with large irreg- 

 ular spots of dull chocolate-brown. 



