117 



BLUE CRANE, OR HERON. 

 ARDEA CjERULEA. 

 [Plate LXIL— Fig. 3.] 



Arct. ZooL JVo. 351. — Catesbt, I, 76. — >Le Crahier hleUf Buff. YII, 398.~Sxoan. JaiU. II, 315.— 

 Lath. Syn. v. 3, p. 78, tJVo. 45,— 79, K?ar. Jl.—'d.rdea cmrulescenSf Turt. Syst. ]), 379.— Feam's 

 Museunif JV'o. 3782. 



IN mentioning this species in his translation of the Systema 

 Natiira^ Turton has introduced what he calls two varieties^ one 

 from New Zealand, the other from Brazil; both of which, if we 

 may judge by their size and color, appear to be entirely different 

 and distinct species ; the first being green with yellow legs, the last 

 nearly one half less than the present. By this loose mode of dis« 

 crimination, the precision of science being altogether dispensed 

 with, the whole tribe of Cranes, Herons and Bitterns may be styled 

 mere varieties of the genus Ardea, The same writer has still far- 

 ther increased this confusion, by designating as a different species 

 his Bluish Heron (A. caerulescens), which agrees almost exactly 

 with the present. Some of these mistakes may probably have ori- 

 ginated from the figure of this bird given by Catesby, which ap- 

 pears to have been drawn and colored, not from nature, but from 

 the glimmering recollections of memory, and is extremely erro- 

 neous. These remarks are due to truth, and necessary to the elu- 

 cidation of the history of this species, which seems to be but im- 

 perfectly known in Europe. 



The Blue Heron is properly a native of the warmer climates 

 of the United States, migrating from thence, at the approach of 

 winter, to the tropical regions; being found in Cayenne, Jamaica, 

 and Mexico. On the muddy shores of the Mississippi, from Baton 



VOL. VII. 



