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ALTRICIAL GRALLATORES - HERODIONES. 



During the suininer, in Louisiana, the younj,' of this spt'cics resort to connnons and 

 dry pastures, to feed on insects of many kinds. Mr. Moore lias seen a floek of a dozen 

 hovering pretty close together ahove a shoal of minnows in the bay, settling down 

 with their legs hanging and dangling near the water, and attempting to seize them 

 by reaching (h)wn their bills. In the confusion of wings, legs, and necks so near 

 together, it was impossible to tell whether they took any tish, but he i»resunies that 

 they did. He has found their eggs from the 10th to the 2uth of April, and u .second 

 brood on the 1st of dime. Two eggs of this Heron, in iny collection, taken by l)v. 

 Bryant in Florida, have an oval shape, are ecpially rounded at either end, and are of 

 a uniform light greenish-blue tint. There is just a shade more of green tinting the 

 Prussian blue in this than in the other kinds of Heron. One egg measures 1.87 inches 

 in length by l.'M inches in breadth; the other is 1..S0 inches long by 1.30 inches in 

 breadth. The egg is more oblong than that of the cwruleit, but is more rounded than 

 that of the Imhviciunu. 



Genus DICHROMANASSA, Eiduway. 



<"Demiegrcna" (nee Bi.ytii), Baikd, B. N. Am. 18.58, CGO dmit). 



= I)k-linmum(ssa, Kidgw. Bull. U. S. Geol. & Geog. Survey, Ttrr. IV. no. 1, Feb. 5, 1878, 246. 



Type, Anlca rufa, BuJd. 

 <£rodiiis, Kkiciiesow, Jour. I'iir Orn. 1877, 268 {inchnXes Hydmnassa, Ilcrodius, Lcpthcrodius, and 



Oanctta). 



Gen. Chars. Medium sized Herons, of uniform white or plumbeous plumage, with (adult) or 

 without (young) cinnamon-colored head and neck ; the form slender, the toes very short, and the 

 legs very long ; the adults with the entire head and neck (except throat and foreneck) covered 

 with long, narrowly lanceolate, compact-webbed feathers, which on the occiput form ati ample 

 crest, the feathers of which are very narrowly lanceolate and decurvetl. 



Bill much longer than the middle toe (about two thirds the tarsus), the ui)per and lower out- 

 lines almost precisely similar in contour, being nearly parallel along the middle portion, where 

 slightly approxinuited ; the terminal portion of both culmen and gonys gently and about etiually 

 curved. Mental ape.x e.xtending to a little more than one third the distance from the middle of 

 the eye to the tip of the bill, or to about even with the anterior end of the nostril ; malar ape.x 

 about even with that of the frontal feathers. Toes very short, the middle one less than half the 

 tarsus, the hallux less than half the middle toe ; bare portion of tibia more than half as long as 

 tarsus ; scutellation of tarsus, etc., as in Jferodias, Ganetta, ami allied genera. 



Plumes of the adult consisting of a more or less lengthened train of fostigiate, stitf-shafted feath- 

 ers, with long, loose, anil straight plumules, ami extending beyond the tail ; in addition to this 

 train, the scapulars a' ' the feathei's of the wholi; head and neck, except the throat and foreneck, 

 are long and narrow, distinctly lanceolate, and acuminate, with compact webs, and on the occiput 

 are developed into un ample decurved crest. 



Affinities. — This genus is perhaps most nearly allied to Demicgretta, Blyth,^ with which it 

 agrees quite closely in the form of the bill, and also, to a considerable extent, in coloration. 

 Demiegretta, however, is at once distinguished by its e.xtremely short tarsus (nuich shorter than 

 the bill, instead of nearly a third longer I), which is altogether more abbreviated than in any 

 American genus of this group, in proportion to the other dimensions. The plumes also are 

 entirely different, there being none on the neck, with the e.xception of the jugulum, while those 

 of the back are slenderly lanceolate, with compact webs, almost exiwtly as in Florida cctrulea. 



1 Type, Ardca jiigidaris, Blyth, Notes on the Fauna of the Nicobar Islands, Journ. Asiatic Soc. 

 Bengal, xv. 1846, 376, Hcrodias concolor, Bosav. Consp. ii. 1855, 121, -= Ardca sacra, O.mei.. This 

 Heron also is dichromatic, having a pure- white phase as in DichronuMMSsa rufa, the normal plumage 

 being uniform dark plumbeous or slate. 



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