minute transverse barrings or grizzlings of olive and black. Like the bit- 

 terns, they are inhabitants of reed and grass swamps. All these birds have 

 obliteratively-shaded bodies, and— in the slight degree consistent with the 

 characteristic nearly erect position of these parts — obliteratively-shaded necks 

 and heads. 



The coloration of herons in general is exceptionally various, including as 

 it does such extremes as the richly mottled brown of bitterns and the immacu- 

 late snow-white of egrets and some others, — the supposed " conspicuous" 

 species. (In a later chapter we shall show that these egrets too, and all such 

 birds, are obliteratively colored.) Herons walk and rest, very commonly, 

 almost erect, and their obliterative shading is often not very pronounced, 

 though present, and evenly developed, in the majority of species. The colors 

 of shallow and shaded water — subdued blues and greens and purples, some- 

 times enriched and subtilized by iridescence,* predominate in their plumage, 

 and they usually have bright reed- and water-colors on their naked legs and 

 bills.f Their markings are various, sometimes pronounced and clear, some- 

 times obscure, or even lacking altogether, but almost always perfectly and 

 obviously consistent with the water-picturing suggested by their general color- 

 tones. It is significant, too, that in spite of the much diversity in herons' 

 colors, there are no brown and elaborately-patterned species except some of 

 those that live in grassy marshes and dense reed-swamps, where they skulk 

 almost like rails — the first subjects of our next chapter. 



* See p. 92, Chapter XVI. 

 t See Chapter XV. 



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