BLUE HERON. 63 
tinged with cream-colour, the tips of the three outer primaries light 
greyish-blue. Of this colour the bird remains until the breeding sea- 
son, when, however, some individuals exhibit a few straggling pale 
blue feathers. When they have entered on their second year, these 
young birds become spotted with deeper blue on some parts of the 
body, or on the head and neck, thus appearing singularly patched with 
that colour and pure white, the former increasing with the age of the 
bird in so remarkable a manner, that you may see specimens of these 
birds with portions even of the pendant feathers of their head or shoul-. 
ders so marked. And these are produced by full moultings, by which 
T mean the unexpected appearance, as it were, of feathers growing out 
of the skin of the bird coloured entirely blue, as is the case in many of 
our land birds. In all these stages of plumage, and from the first spring 
after birth, the young birds breed with others, as is equally the case 
with Ardea rufescens. You may see a pure white individual paired 
with one of a full blue colour, or with one patched with blue and white. 
The young, after leaving their parents, remain separate from the old 
birds until the next breeding season. At no period can the young of 
this species be confounded with, or mistaken for that of the Ardea can- 
didissima, by a person really acquainted with these birds, for the Blue 
Heron is not only larger than the latter, but the very colour of its feet 
and legs is perfectly distinctive. Indeed, during the time when the 
young Blue Heron is quite white (excepting on the tips of the outer 
primaries), it would be easier to confound it with the young of the 
Reddish Egret, Ardea rufescens, than with that of any other, were the 
feathers. of its hind head and neck of the same curious curled appear- 
ance as those of that species. 
My friend Joun Bacuman informs me, that in South Carolina, this 
species not unfrequently breeds in the company of the Louisiana He- 
ron, the nests and eggs of which, he adds, are very similar. He has 
specimens of these birds in all the different stages which I have de- 
seribed. At New Orleans, the Blue Herons, during the transition of 
their plumage from white to blue, are called “ Egrettes folles,” or 
foolish Egrets, on account of their unusual tameness. My friend 
Bacumawn and I, shot, on the 6th and 9th of April, several specimens 
spotted with blue feathers, and having their crests and trains similarly 
mixed, although of full length ; but in most of the specimens obtained, 
