AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 



LOUISIANA HERON. 

 AEDEA LUDOVICIANA. 

 [Plate LXIV.— Fig. 1.] 



Peaie's Musmnif JVo. 3750. 



THIS is a rare and delicately formed species; occasionally 

 found on the swampy river shores of South Carolina, but more fre- 

 quently along the borders of the Mississippi, particularly 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 Blue Heron. It is quick in all its motions, darting about 

 after its prey with surprising agility. Small fish, frogs, lizards, 

 tadpoles, and various aquatic insects, constitute its principal food. 



There is a bird described by Latham in his General Synop- 

 sis, 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 



VOL. VIII. 



* See also Biiffon, vol. Yii, p. 378, 



