AEDEID^, HERONS. 265 



the beautiful crests ami dorsal plumes that ornament many species, but which, as a 

 rule, are worn only during the breeding season. These features will suffice to deter- 

 mine the Ardekke, talvcu in connection with the more general ones indicated under 

 head of Herodiones, and the details given beyond. 



The boat-billed heron of Central America, with a singular shape of the bill that 

 has suggested the name, and the four pairs of powder-down tracts, constitutes one 

 subfamily, Cancromince. The still more remarkable Bakeniceps rex, of Africa, with 

 an enormous head and bill, thick neck, and one pair of such tracts, is probably 

 assignable here as a second subfamily, BakenicepiiuK ; but it approaches the storks, 

 and may form a separate intermediate family. The disputed cases ol MJiinochetus, 

 Eurypyrja and Scopus \\n.\e, been already mentioned ; these five forms aside, the 

 herons all fall in the single 



Subfamihj ABDEIN^^E. True Herons. 



Bill longer than head, straiglit, or very nearly so, more or less compressed, acute, 

 cultrate (witli sharp cutting edges) ; upper mandible with a long groove ; nostrils 

 more or less linear, pervious. Head narrow and elongate, sloping down to the bill, 

 its sides flattened. Lores naked, rest of head feathered, the frontal feathers 

 extending in a rounded outline on the base of the culmeu, generally to the nostrils. 

 Wings broad and ample ; the inner quills usually as long as the primaries, when 

 closed. Tail very short, of twelve (usually), or fewer soft broad feathers. TibiiB 

 naked below, sometimes for a great distance. Tarsi scutellate in front, and some- 

 times behind, generally reticulate there and on the sides. Toes long and slender ; 

 the outer usually connected with the middle by a basal web, the hinder very long 

 (for this order), inserted on the level of the rest. Hind claw larger and more 

 curved than the middle one (alwa3's?) ; the middle claw pectinate. 



The group thus defined oiTers little variation in form ; all the numerous genera 

 now in vogue have been successively detached from Ardea, the tj^pical one, with 

 which most of them should be reunited. The night herons (235-6) differ 

 somewhat in shortness and especially stoutness of bill ; while the bitterns (237, 

 and th3 South American genus Tigrisoma) are still better marked. There are 

 about seventj'-five species, very generally distributed over the globe, but especially 

 abounding in the torrid and temperate zones. Those that penetrate to cold 

 countries in summer, are regular migrants ; the others are generally stationary. 

 They are maritime, lacustrine and paludicole birds, drawing their chief sustenance 

 from animal substances taken from the water, or from soft ground in its vicinity ; 

 such as fish, reptiles, testaceans and insects, captured by a quick thrust of the 

 spear-like bill, given as the bird stands in wait or wades stealthily ajong. In 

 conformity with this, the gullet is capacious, but without special dilation, the 

 stomach is small and little muscular, the intestines are long and extremely 

 slender, with a large globular cloaca, and a ccecum. Herons are altricial, and 

 generally nest in trees or bushes (where their insessorial feet enable them to 

 perch with ease) in swampy or other places near the water, often in large 

 communities, building a large flat rude structure of sticks. The eggs vary in "^ \^ 

 number, coincidently, it would seem, with the size of the species ; the larger 

 herons generally lay two or three, the smaller kinds five or six ; the eggs are 

 somewhat elliptical in shape, and usually of an unvariegated bluish or greenish 

 shade. The voice is a rough croali. The sexes are nearly always alike in color 

 (remarkable exception in gen. 238) ; but the species in which, as in the bittern, 



KEY TO N. A. 15mDS. 34 



