82 Birds of Colorado 
There is a clutch of five eggs of this bird in the Colorado 
College Museum, presented by I. C. Hall. They were 
taken by the donor near Greeley on June Ist, 1903. 
The nest is described as a platform of rushes among 
cat-tails, about ten inches above the level of the shallow 
water. The eggs, oval and white with a pale blue tinge, 
measure 1°20 x ‘90. This, so far as I know, is the only 
instance of a nest being found in Colorado, and I have 
every confidence in the correctness of the identification. 
Genus ARDEA. 
Large birds—wings 18 to 21—with a long, straight, pointed beak, 
about two-thirds the length of the tarsus ; tail short of twelve feathers ; 
legs long, the lower third, at least, of the tibio-tarsus bare ; tarsus longer 
than the middle toe and claw; head with two long plumes in the 
breeding season; feathers of the fore-neck and scapulars elongated, 
but not decomposed. 
A universally spread genus of about a dozen species, with only one 
commonly known in North America. 
Great Blue Heron. Ardea herodias. 
A.O.U. Checklist no 194—Colorado Records—Aiken 72, p. 209; 
Nash 83, p. 225; Drew 85, p. 18; Morrison 89, p. 166; Cooke 97, 
pp. 18, 61, 157, 197 ; Dille 03, p. 74; Henderson 03, p. 234; 07, p. 162; 
09, p. 227; Markman 07, p. 155 ; Rockwell 08, p. 158 ; Warren 09, p. 13. 
Description.—Adult—Top of the head white bordered by black, and 
with a black occipital crest, which bears two or more long slender plumes 
in the breeding season ; neck purplish-grey, with a mixed white, black 
and rusty throat line, becoming white on the chin and cheeks ; shoulders 
and under-parts chiefly black, striped with white ; upper-parts bluish- 
grey, becoming black on the primaries ; tibial feathering and edge of 
the wing chestnut ; iris yellow, bill yellow, darker along the culmen, 
feet blackish. Length about 45; wing 19-25; tail 7-5; culmen 6-0; 
tarsus 7-25, 
The female is smaller—wing about 18-25. In the non-breeding 
plumage the long occipital plumes are absent and the scapulars are not 
lengthened and lanceolate. The young birds have no lengthened 
feathers, the whole crown is black, and the colours generally paler 
and less distinct. 
