Herons and Bitterns 



when these bitterns, like all their kin, step boldly out of their 

 retreats and indulge in longer flights from home. Many men of 

 science have thought the powder-down tracts on their bodies 

 glow with phosphorescent light in the dark and attract fish 

 to the water's edge, where the bird stands motionless, ready to 

 transfix a victim with its beak. But as yet this is only an inter- 

 esting theory that has still to be proved. 



Great Blue Heron 



(Ardea herodias) 



Called also : BLUE CRANE ; (erroneously) SANDHILL CRANE 



Length — 42 to 50 inches. Stands about 4 feet high. 



Male and Female — Crown and throat white, with a long black 

 crest beginning at base of bill, running through eye, and 

 hanging over the neck, the two longest feathers of which 

 are lacking in autumn. Very long neck, light brownish 

 gray, the whitish feathers on lower neck much lengthened 

 and hanging over the dusky and chestnut breast. Upper 

 parts ashy blue ; darker on wings, which are ornamented 

 with long plumes, similar to those on breast, in nesting 

 plumage only. Bend of wing and thighs rusty red. 

 Under parts dusky, tipped with white and rufous. Long 

 legs and feet, black. Bill, longer than head, stout, sharp, 

 and yellow. 



Range — North America at large, from Labrador, Hudson Bay, 

 and Alaska; nesting locally through range, and wintering in 

 our southern states, the West Indies, and Central and South 

 America. 



Season — Summer resident at the north, April to October, often to 

 December; elsewhere resident all the year. 



The Japanese artists, "on many a screen and jar, on many 

 a plaque and fan," have taught some of us the aesthetic value 

 of the heron and its allies— birds whose outstretched necks, long, 

 dangling legs, slender bodies, and broad expanse of wing give 

 a picturesque animation to our own marshes. But American 

 artists seek them out more rarely than shooters, and a useless 

 mass of flesh and feathers lies decomposing in many a morass 

 where the law does not penetrate and the rifle ball does. Long- 

 fellow, in "The Herons of Elmwood," paints a word picture of 

 II 161 



