ARDEID.E — THK HEROXS — DTCnROMANASSA. 37 



The flight of tliis species is said to be more elevated and reguhir than that of the 

 smaller Herons. It is peculiarly graceful d\iring the mating season, especially when 

 one unmated male is pursuing another. It is said to pass through the air with great 

 celerity, turning and cutting about in curious curves and zigzags, the i^ursuing bird 

 frequently erecting its beautiful crest and vittering a cry at the moment it is about to 

 give a thrust at the other. When travelling to and from their feeding-grounds, it 

 propels itself with tin- \isual regular flapping, and in the customary manner of 

 flight of other Herons. On approaching a landing-jilace, it performs several circum- 

 volutions, as if to satisfy itself that all is safe before alighting. It is much more shy 

 and wary than the smaller Herons ; and after the breeding season is over it is almost 

 impossible to shoot one, except when it is taken by surjjrise, or when flying overhead 

 among tlie mangroves. 



Audubon regarded the two forms as identical, and mentions finding them in what 

 he regarded their mature and their immature conditions, breeding together. At this 

 time, in passing and repassing they are said to utter peculiar rough sounds which it 

 is impossible to describe. He states that their nests are placed for the most part on 

 the southwestern sides of the mangroves immediately bordering the Keys. They are 

 rarely near together, and never on trees at a distance from the water. Some are 

 placed on the tops of the mangroves, others only a foot or two above high-water 

 mark. The nest is quite flat, is large for the bird, and formed of dry sticks inter- 

 spersed with grass and leaves. The eggs are usually three in number, average an 

 inch and three quarters in length, and one and three eighths in breadth, having an 

 elliptical form, and are of a uniform pale sea-green color; they are excellent eating. 

 Both birds incubate, as is the case with all Herons. 



In its habits it seems to be as strictly marine as the Great White Heron. When 

 wounded, it strikes with its bill, scratches with its claws, and, throwing itself on its 

 back, emits its rough and harsh notes, keeping its crest erected and expanded, and its 

 feathers swollen. 



Mr. N. B. Moore, of Manatee, Florida, is of the opinion that Peak's Egret and the 

 Reddish Egret are identical as species. He does not think, with Audubon, that the 

 white form is the young bird and the reddish the adult, but that old and young may 

 be white like the Pealei, blue and reddish like the riifcsrcns, or may exist in a pied 

 form. On the loth of July he found a nest, where the parents were in the plumage 

 of ri/fcsrc'iis, one of the young pure white, the other a blue or gray bird. The nest 

 was in a mangrove tree on a wet Key, and was the only Heron's nest there. Both 

 parents were seen. The young were taken, and the attempt was made to keep them 

 alive in order to watch their change of plumage ; but it was not successful. Except 

 in the color of the down, the young birds were alike in many respects — e.;/. the l)luish- 

 ash color of the skin, the proportions and color of the eyes, etc. 



Mr. Moore has twice met with specimens of jjied, or white and blue varieties of 

 this species, and feels quite positive that the white bird is an unchanging variety 

 of the Reddish Egret, and that the pied varieties are equally permanent in their 

 plumage. The young bird in the white plumage remains the same for at least 

 twenty-two months, as is proved by the one kept by Dr. Batdiman. 



The fact that Dr. Gambel has seen the young of the rufescens in purple iilumage, 

 while it does controvert Audubon's views that the young are always white, by no 

 means necessarily shows that none of the young are white, or that a large portion 

 may not be so. 



Mr. Moore refers to the peculiar petiilance displayed by all Herons while feeding, 

 and which is only manifested towards their own species. Several Heron's, each of 



