136 MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE 
brownish or grayish; the Blue Heron on the contrary has a bill as sharp 
as a dagger, the head always well feathered and usually with elongated 
occipital plumes, while the general tone of the plumage is always bluish. 
Distribution.—North America from the Arctic regions southward to the 
West Indies and northern South America. Bermudas; Galapagos. 
The largest and probably, all things considered, the most frequently 
seen of any of our herons. While it feeds largely at night and is most 
active at morning and evening, yet it fishes more or less all through the day, 
and may be seen quietly watching or slowly walking along the edges of 
pond or stream at almost any time. It is rather wary and hard to ap- 
proach, but quickly learns to avoid dangerous places and to know those 
where it is safe. Its height enables it to look over the tops of the tallest 
grass and it seldom becomes so absorbed in its pursuit of fish or frogs as to 
allow the hunter to come within shooting distance, unless indeed the 
murderer is armed with a rifle. 
The Blue Heron feeds mainly on fish and frogs, but also eats immense 
numbers of crayfish, small snakes, salamanders, insects (among them 
grasshoppers), meadow mice, and almost anything of an animal nature. 
So far as we know it never eats vegetable substances of any kind. 
It breeds almost always in communities, placing its bulky nest of sticks 
and twigs on the highest branches of swamp trees, often selecting those 
which are dead. Sometimes several nests are placed on the same tree, 
and frequently 150 to 200 nests may be seen in a single heronry. The 
same place is resorted to year after year unless the birds are seriously 
disturbed. Probably every county in the state has, or recently has had, 
one or more of these heronries, but as the timber has been cut off and the 
swamps and marshes have been drained the birds have been driven from 
their nesting places until they are now found only in the more favorable 
spots. They are still far from rare however, and the location of more than 
twenty flourishing heronries of this species is known to us at present. 
The eggs are commonly three to five, bluish green, unspotted, and average 
2.50 by 1.50 inches. The same nests are repaired and used year after year, 
and the eggs are laid rather early, in Kalamazoo county by the middle of 
April, and probably by the first of May in the northern part of the state. 
This species arrives from the south from the middle to the end of March 
and remains usually through October, while single individuals linger 
occasionally much later. One was killed in the streets of Lansing by a 
policeman, December 23, 1897. 
TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 
Adult in breeding plumage: Forehead, crown, chin, and most of sides of head pure 
white; a heavy black stripe over each eye, uniting in a black drooping crest on the occiput 
where the longest feathers reach a length of 8 or 9 inches; upper parts, including most of 
wing-coverts and secondaries, light slaty blue; most of back feathers (scapulars and inter- 
scapulars) elongated into bluish or creamy-white slender tips; throat and breast grayish- 
white, or brownish-white, heavily streaked with black, the feathers of the lower neck 
with elongated narrow white or buffy tips; a large deep black patch, with some white, 
on each side of the breast; belly pure black with some white streaks; under tail-coverts 
pure white; thighs (tibie) and bend of wing chestnut; primaries black. Bill yellow, 
darker on culmen; iris yellow; legs and feet black. After the breeding season the occipital 
plumes are shed and the plumage becomes duller and grayer. Sexes alike. Immature: 
No long plumes; no white on the head, the entire crown being blackish; chestnut markings 
paler or wanting; upper parts dull gray, often rusty; under parts streaked with ashy and 
blackish. Length 42 to 50 inches; wing 17.90 to 19.85; culmen 4.30 to 6.25; tarsus 6 to 8. 
