152 HERONS, STORKS, AND IBISES 



seem top-lieavy. Start it off in flight, however, and it is one 

 of the most ill-fitting herons that ever took wing. It is so 

 angular and loose-jointed it seems ready to fall to pieces, 

 and its flight is slow and feeble. The prevailing color of its 

 plumage is a beautiful metallic green, but the flat shape of 

 its neck, and the peculiar set of the feathers thereon have 

 caused many young taxidermists some very sad hours. 



The food of the Green Heron consists of minnows, small 

 frogs, tadpoles and insects. 



The Little Blue Heron ^ is still occasionally seen in 

 Florida, because it bears no fatal "plumes." In summer this 

 species sometimes wanders northward as far as Illinois and 

 Maine. One striking peculiarity of its plumage is worthy of 

 special mention. Until one year old the young birds are 

 snow white, and look precisely like young snowy egrets which 

 are of corresponding size and form. Sometimes it is a matter 

 of difficulty to convince a person that a snow-white bird is a 

 Little Blue Heron in its first year. But the moulting finally 

 tells the story. First the plumage is flecked with blue, then 

 it is half blue, and at last the solid-blue color prevails. It 

 seems to me that in clothing young and inexperienced birds 

 in snow-white robes, which attract all eyes to them. Nature 

 forgot all about "protective coloration"! 



The Black-Crowned Night Heron ^breeds all around New 

 York City, and there is a wild colony of more than twenty 

 birds regularly nesting and living in the Zoological Park. We 

 feed them daily, with raw fish, on the bank of Lake Agassiz. 



' Ar-de'a cae-ru'le-a. Average length, 24.50 inches. 



2 Nyc-ti-co'rax nycticorax nae'vi-us. Length, 24.50 inches. 



