148 



BLUE HERON. 



-VArdea ccertjlea, Linn. 

 PLATE CCCLXXIL— Adult Male and Young. 



Along with a few other Herons, this is, comparatively speaking, confined 

 within narrow limits along our southern coast in winter. It occurs, how- 

 ever, in most parts of the Floridas, where it is a constant resident, and 

 whence, at the approach of summer, vast multitudes are seen proceeding 

 northward, in search of suitable places in which they may rear their young 

 in security. Many, however, go southward, beyond the limits of the United 

 States, and proceed coastwise to Texas and Mexico to spend the winter, 

 especially the younger birds, when still in that singular white plumage which 

 differs so much from that of the young of every other known species of this 

 genus, except that of the Reddish Egret {A. rufescens). At New Orleans, 

 where it arrives at the same period, both from Mexico and the Floridas, its 

 first appearance in spring is about the beginning of March; at which time 

 also multitudes leave the Floridas on their way eastward, to settle in Georgia, 

 the Carolinas, and other States farther east, as far as Long Island in that of 

 New York. Beyond this, I believe, no birds of the species have been met 

 with. They rarely, if ever, proceed far inland, or leave the shores of our 

 large rivers and estuaries. On the Mississippi, the swamps and lakes on the 

 borders of which are so well adapted to the habits of these birds, few indi- 

 viduals are ever seen above Natchez. About the beginning of September, 

 by which time the young are able to shift for themselves, they return south- 

 ward. 



When in the Floridas, during winter, I observed that the Blue Herons 

 associated with other species, particularly the White Heron, Jlrdea Egretta, 

 and the Louisiana Heron, Jlrdea Ludoviciana, all of which were in the 

 habit of roosting together in the thick evergreen low bushes that cover the 

 central parts of the islands along the coast. Their passage to and from their 

 feeding places, is as regular as the rising and setting of the sun, and, unless 

 frequently disturbed, they betake themselves every night to the same 

 locality, and almost to the same spot. In the morning, they rise with one 

 accord from the roosts on which they have been standing all night on one leg, 

 the other drawn up among the feathers of the abdomen, their neck retracted, 



