WADING BIRDS 99 



LITTLE BLUE HERON 



The Little Blue Heron is found from New York, Illi- 

 nois, and Kansas southward through Mexico and Central 

 America to South America and the West Indies. It is of 

 accidental occurrence as far north as Maine and Wisconsin. 



The name " little blue " is somewhat misleading, as adult 

 birds are a maroon color on the head and neck; the rest of 

 the plumage is grayish or slaty. Immature birds are pure 

 white, with the exception of a faint grayish tinge near the 

 tips of the wings. The young, therefore, look very much 

 like the sno^\y egret. 



These birds often breed in company with snowj^ and 

 Louisiana heron. Their eggs, like those of all other herons, 

 are light blue, unspotted. The nests are mere platforms 

 of sticks. The writer has four eggs taken from a nest 

 placed eight feet above the water, in a willow where yellow- 

 crowned night herons were nesting in company with the 

 little blue herons, in one of the Georgia swamps. 



THE LITTLE GREEN HERON* 



One of the smallest of the herons, and one of the most 

 common in many localities, is the Little Green Heron, 

 familiarly knoA\Ti to the rural Hoosier boy as the " Schyte- 

 poke " and to others as the " Poke." 



The little green heron arrives in the Northern States 

 and Canada from its winter residence in Florida, or farther 

 southward, about the last of April, and immediately begins 



