152 BLUE HERON. 



while others are placed high; for, like the rest of its tribe, this species is 

 rather fond of placing its tenement over or near the liquid element. 



The eggs are usually three, rarely four; and I have never found a nest of 

 this species containing five eggs, as is stated by Wilson, who, probably 

 found a nest of the Green Heron containing that number among others of 

 the present species. They measure an inch and three quarters in length, by 

 an inch and a quarter in breadth, being about the size of those of Jirdea 

 candidissima, though rather more elongated, and precisely of the same 

 colour. 



j The young bird is at first almost destitute of feathers, but scantily covered 

 with yellowish-white down. When fully fledged, its bill and legs are 

 greenish-black, and its plumage pure white, or slightly tinged with cream- 

 colour, the tips of the three outer primaries light greyish-blue. Of this 

 colour the bird remains until the breeding season, when, however, some in- 

 dividuals exhibit a few straggling pale blue feathers. When they have en- 

 tered on their second year, these young birds become spotted with deeper 

 blue on some parts of the body, or on the head and neck, thus appearing 

 singularly patched with that colour and pure white, the former increasing 

 with the age of the bird in so remarkable a manner, that you may see speci- 

 mens of these birds with portions even of the pendent feathers of their head 

 or shoulders so marked. And these are produced by full moultings, by 

 which I mean the unexpected appearance, as it were, of feathers growing 

 out of the skin of the bird coloured entirely blue, as is the case in many of 

 our land birds. In all these stages of plumage, and from the first spring 

 after birth, the young birds breed with others, as is equally the case with 

 Jirdea rufescens. You may see a pure white individual paired with one of 

 a full blue colour, or with one patched with blue and white, j The young, 

 after leaving their parents, remain separate from the old birds until the next 

 breeding season. At no period can the young of this species be confounded 

 with, or mistaken for that of the Jirdea candidissima, by a person really 

 acquainted with these birds, for the Blue Heron is not only larger than the 

 latter, but the very colour of its feet and legs is perfectly distinctive. In- 

 deed, during the time when the young Blue Heron is quite white (excepting 

 on the tips of the outer primaries) it would be easier to confound it with the 

 young of the Reddish Egret, Jirdea rufescens, than with that of any other, 

 were the feathers of its hind head and neck of the same curious curled ap- 

 pearance as those of that species. 



My friend John Bachman informs me, that in South Carolina, this spe- 

 cies not unfrequently breeds in the company of the Louisiana Heron, the 

 nests and eggs of which, he adds, are very similar. He has specimens of 

 these birds in all the different stages which I have described. At New Or- 



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