468 THE GREAT BEUE HERON. 



and sides bright plumbeous; lores blue; upper mandible yellowish-olive, blackening 

 on ridge ; lower mandible yellow ; feet and legs black. The occipital crest of the 

 male contains two, much elongated, filamentous, deciduous feathers during the 

 breeding season. Immature: Similar, but top of head entirely black; without 

 specially colored or lengthened feathers on neck, sides of breast, or scapulars ; 

 upper parts inclined to fuscous ; under parts with slaty and ochraceous in addition 

 to black and white; feathers on bend of wing and thighs lighter, or vinaceous- 

 rufous. Young in first plumage : Brownish-fuscous above, streaked and spotted 

 with buffy and whitish, narrowly on head and neck; below white, streaked with 

 fuscous and buffy. Juvenile plumages vary interminably within these general 

 limits, but the bird is unmistakable. Length 42.00-50.00 (1066.8-1270.) ; extent 

 about 70.00 (1930.4) ; wing 18.00-20.00 (457.2-508.) ; tail 8.25 (209.6) ; bill 5.00- 

 6.00 (127.-152.4) ; tarsus about 7.00 (177.8) ; middle toe and claw 5.00 (127.). 



Recognition Marks. — Eagle size; great size and bluish cast of plumage 

 unmistakable. 



Nest, a bunch or platform of sticks placed high in trees or, rarely, on cliffs. 

 Eggs, 3 or 4, pale blue. Av. size 2.50 x 1.50 (63.5 x 38.1). 



General Range. — North America from the Arctic regions southward to the 

 West Indies and northern South America. Bermudas ; Galapagos. 



Range in Ohio. — Common migrant ; not common summer resident. The 

 well-known heronries of former years are much reduced in numbers. 



IF we were to listen to the French modistes we should soon have no 

 Herons. But fortunately a saner spirit from the far east is beginning to 

 touch us, and we are being made to realize that the beauty of the Heron 

 belongs to the landscape as God made it, rather than to a woman's hat as 

 milliners distort it. The Japanese have found in the Heron an inexhaust- 

 ible motif for decorative art, and it is noteworthy that their treatment of 

 it, on vases and screens or in mural decorations, always gives it its proper 

 place as the central feature, or at least the finishing touch, of the landscape. 



The Great Blue Heron is, with us, the largest of its kind, and while 

 not exactly graceful on the one hand, nor majestic on the other, it presents 

 that peculiar combination of the two which we recognize as picturesque. 

 While standing knee-deep in the water of some pond or stream, awaiting 

 its customary prey of minnows or frogs, it may remain for an hour as mo- 

 tionless as a bronze statue; then with a movement like lightning, the head 

 is drawn back and suddenly shot downward, and a wriggling fish is trans- 

 fixed on the spear-like beak. A deft toss of the head puts the fish up and 

 transfers it to the inside, and the bird moves with quiet, measured step to 

 another station, or else rises heavily with slow flaps into the air. In full 

 flight the Heron stretches its legs to the greatest extent behind ; and the 

 neck, especially when the bird is sailing, is carried like the letter S or Z, 

 so that the lower part is brought parallel to the long bill, and the bird looks 

 like a strato^cumulus cloud floating in space. 



Besides frequenting our inland ponds and water-ways, the Herons find 



