292 
BLUE HERON. 
throat whitish, streaked with deep brown ; from the posterior and lower 
part of the auriculars a broad patch of deep black passes diagonally 
across the neck, a distinguished characteristic of this species ; the back 
is deep brown barred and mottled with innumerable specks and streaks 
of brownish yellow ; quills black, with a leaden gloss, and tipped with 
yellowish brown ; legs and feet yellow, tinged with pale green ; middle 
claw pectinated ; belly light yellowish brown streaked with darker, vent 
plain, thighs sprinkled on the outside with grains of dark brown ; male 
and female nearly alike, the latter somewhat less. According to Be- 
wick, the tail of the European Bittern contains only ten feathers ; the 
American species has invariably twelve. The intestines measured five 
feet six inches in length, and were very little thicker than a common 
knitting-needle ; the stomach is usually filled with fish or frogs. 
This bird when fat is considered by many to be excellent eating. 
Species II. ARDEA CJERJJLEA. 
BLUE CRANE, or HERON. 
[Plate LXII. Fig. 3.] 
Arcf. Zool. No. 351. — Catesby, r., 70. — Le Crabier bleu, Buff, vii., 398. — Sloan. 
Jam. ii., 315. — Lath. S;/n. nr., p. 78, No. 45, p. 79, var. A. — Ardea ccerules- 
ccns, Turt. Si/st. p. 379.* 
In mentioning this species in his translation of the Systema Waturce, 
Turton has introduced what he calls two varieties, one from New Zea- 
land, 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 discrimination, 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 farther increased this confusion, by designating as a dif- 
ferent species his Bluish Heron {A. cceruleseens), which agrees almost 
exactly with the present. Some of these mistakes may probably have 
originated from the figure of this bird given by Catesby, which appears 
to have been drawn and colored, not from nature, but from the glim- 
mering recollections of memory, and is extremely erroneous. These 
remarks are due to truth, and necessary to the elucidation of the history 
of his species, which seems to be but imperfectly known in Europe. 
The Blue Heron is properly a native of the warmer climates of the 
* Heron bleudtre de Cayenne, Buff. PI. Enl. 349, adult. 
