428 LOUISIANA HERON. 



LOUISIANA HEKON. (Ardea Ludoviciana) 



PLATE LXIV.— Fig. 1. 



Peale's Museum, No. 3750. 

 ARDEA LUDOVICIANA— -Wilson. 



Ardea leucogaster, Orel's reprint, part yiii. p. 1. — Ardea Ludoviciana, 

 Bonap. Synop. p. 304. 



This is a rare and delicately-formed species, occasionally 

 found on the swampy river shores of South Carolina, but 

 more frequently along the borders of the Mississippi, parti- 

 cularly below New Orleans. In each of these places it is 

 migratory ; and in the latter, as I have been informed, builds 

 its nest on trees, amidst the inundated woods. Its manners 

 correspond very much with those of the bine heron. It is 

 quick in all its motions, darting about after its prey with sur- 

 prising agility. Small fish, frogs, lizards, tadpoles, and various 

 aquatic insects, constitute its principal food. 



There is a bird described by Latham in his " General 

 Synopsis," vol. iii. p. 88, called the Demi Egret,'* which, from 

 the account there given, seems to approach near to the present 

 species. It is said to inhabit Cayenne. 



Length of the Louisiana heron, from the point of the bill to 

 the extremity of the tail, twenty-three inches; the long hair- 

 like plumage of the rump and lower part of the back extends 

 several inches farther ; the bill is remarkably long, measuring 

 full five inches, of a yellowish green at the base, black towards 

 the point, and very sharp ; hides, yellow ; chin and throat, 

 white, dotted with ferruginous and some blue ; the rest of the 

 neck is of a light vinous purple, intermixed on the lower part 

 next the breast with dark slate-coloured plumage ; the whole 

 feathers of the neck are long, narrow, and pointed ; head, 

 crested, consisting first of a number of long narrow purple 

 feathers, and under these seven or eight pendant ones, of a 

 pure white, and twice the length of the former ; upper part 

 *_ See also Buffon, voL vii. p. 378. 



