102 



BIRDS OF NORTH CAROLINA 



Beautiful and graceful in the extreme, it is little wonder that many of the earlier 

 ornithologists called this bird " Lady of the Waters." Although inhabiting fresh as 

 well as salt-water bodies, the Louisiana Heron in North Carolina is a bird of the 

 coast region, and rarely if ever wanders far inland. In the territory where it is 

 found it is one of the most abundant of the waders, and it is therefore singular that its 

 presence has not been noted in any of the State lists of birds heretofore published. 

 Apparently the first specimen recorded was on April 20, 1898, when Pearson, while 

 standing at the very point of the beach at Cape Hatteras, watched one fly slowly 

 in from the sea. The next month he found four heronries in which the birds were 

 breeding. These were situated as follows: one at Jones's Pond, Carteret County; 

 one in a small pond near Shallotte in Brunswick County; and two, Crane Neck and 

 Tom Branch, on Orton Pond. The largest colony today is at Crane Neck, where 



FIG. 66. LOUISIANA HERON. 



probably eight hundred or a thousand pairs assemble in summer. ; The colony at 

 Tom Branch was continuously raided by eggers in the summer of 1899 and the 

 birds deserted the region, probably joining their neighbors at Crane Neck a few 

 miles distant. Pearson found them common on the marshes of North River a few 

 miles from Beaufort in July, 1898. The most northern record of its appearance 

 in North Carolina is that noted by Bishop at Pea Island. He found several there 

 between August 5 and 25, 1904. 



Genus Florida (Baird) 

 83. Florida cserulea cserulea (Linn.}. LITTLE BLUE HERON. 



Ads. Head and neck maroon-chestnut; rest of plumage dark bluish slate-color; inter- 

 scapulars and lower neck-feathers lengthened and narrowly pointed; lores blue; legs and feet 

 black. Im. White, plumage sometimes more or less washed with slaty; tips of the primaries-' 

 always bluish slate-color; legs, feet and lores greenish yellow. L., 22.00; W., 10.25; Tar., 3.70; 

 B., 3.00. 



