534 BLUE CRANE. 
BLUE CRANE.— ARDEA CERULEA.—Fié. 250. 
Arct. Zool. No. 351. — Cutesby, i. 76.— Le Crabier bleu, Buff. vii 398. — Sloan, 
Jam. ii. 315. — Lath. Syn. iii. p. 78. No. 45; p.'79, var. A.—.A. caerulescens, 
Turt. Syst. v. 379.— Planch. Enl. 349. — Peale’s Museum, No. 6782. ‘ 
EGRETTA CERULEA. —Jarvine. 
Ardea cerulea, Linn. Syst.— Bonap. Synop. p. 300. — Ardea czerulescens, 
Wagl. Syst. Av. No. 15. 
In mentioning this sprcies in his translation of the Systema Na- 
ture, Turton las introduced what he calls two varieties, one from New 
Zealand, the other from Brazil; both of which, if we may judge by 
their size and color, appear to be entirely different and distinct species ; 
the first being green, with yellow legs, the last nearly one half less 
than the present.* By this loose mode of discrimination, the precision 
of science being altogether dispensed with, the whole tribe of Cranes, 
Herons, and Bitterns, may be styled mere varieties of the genus Ardea. 
The same writer has still further increased this confusion, by desig- 
nating as a different species his Bluish Heron, (.4. cerulescens,) which 
agrees almost exactly with the present. Some of these mistakes may 
probably have originated from the figure of this bird given by Catesby, 
which appears to have been drawn and colored, not from nature, but 
from the glimmering recollections of memory, and is extremely erro- 
neous. ‘These remarks are due to truth, and necessary to the elucida- 
tion of the history of this species, which seems to be but imperfectly 
known in Europe. ; ; 
The Blue Heron is properly a native of the warmer climates of the 
United States, migrating from thence, at the approach of winter, to the 
tropical regions, being found in Cayenne, Jamaica, and Mexico. On 
the muddy shores of the Mississippi, from Baton Rouge downwards to 
New Orleans, these birds are frequently met with. In spring they 
extend their migrations as far north as New England, chiefly in the 
vicinity of the sea, becoming more rare as they advance to the north. 
On the sea-beach of Cape May I found a few of them breeding 
among the cedars, in company with the Snowy Heron, Night Heron, 
and Green Bittern, The Fig. 250 and description were taken from 
* Lhave never traced this species in any Australian collection, and have little 
doubt that the authors of the assertion “ that it is found there,” will turn out incor- 
rect. This bird has all the characters of Egretta except the color, and will certainly 
belong to that division, though it has been generally restricted to those of pure plu- 
mage. Bonaparte, in his Nomenclature of Wilson, says, “ The young birds of the 
year, before their first moult, are altogether pure white, and are therefore apt to be 
confounded with the young of A. canals? Wagler, in his excellent Systema, 
confirms this, and mentions that, in their further change, the upper parts are pale 
cinereous, tinged with purple, beneath white, the quilts partly black, partly white, the 
tail cinereous. It is curious that in a species clothed with such ach, and dark plu- 
mage the young should be pure white, the color of the true Egret/a, while in some 
of those of snowy ati the young are a dusky grayish brown. If it can be 
mistaken in any state for Lgretta candidissima, it will at once show where it ought 
to be placed. — En 
