658 
SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS. — HEBODIONES— HEBODIL 
ciduous feathers of which in the breeding season are long and filamentous ; long loose feathers 
on the lower neck. Length 42.00-50.00; extent about 70.00; wing lS.00-20.00; tail 7.00- 
8.00; bill 4.50-6.25, usually between 5.00 and 6.00; tibite bare 3.00-4.00; tarsus 6.00-8.00, 
usually 6.50-7.00 ; middle toe and claw about 5.00. 9 average smaller than ^. Weight 6 or 
8 lbs. Adult ^ ^ J in breeding dress : Bill yelk)w, more or less blackened on culmen ; lores 
blue ; iris chrome-yellow ; legs and feet blackish, the soles yellowish. Tibia and edge of wing 
chestnut-brown. Forehead and middle of crown white; sides of crown and occipital crest 
black. Neck pale purplish-gray, with a mixed white, black, and rusty throat-line, yielding 
to M'hite on chin and cheeks. Plumes of lower neck, the breast, and belly, black, more or less 
interrupted with white streaks on the middle line ; crissum white. Upper parts in general 
slaty- blue; tail the same; long scapular feathers more pearly-gray; wing-quills deepening 
from this color to the black primaries. Young : Without any long feathers. Crown and front 
without white ; whole top of head blackish. Tibiae and edge of vtdng paler rufous, or whitish. 
General color of upper parts paler and more grayish -blue, more or less tinged with rusty. 
Black of under parts replaced by ashy. Upper mandible mostly blackish ; lores and most of 
lower mandible greenish, rest of the latter and the eyes, yellow ; tibiae greenish. There are 
endless variations in plumage and colors of the soft parts, but this great species cannot be 
mistaken, being only closely related to the colored phase of the next. N. Am. at large, and 
much of C. and S. Am., N. to Labrador, Hudson's Bay, and Sitka in Alaska; northerly migra- 
tory; elsewhere resident. Breeds in suitable places throughout its range, sometimes singly, 
oftener in great heronries to which the birds resort year after year, shared usually with other 
species of its tribe. Nest usually in trees or bushes, in the West sometimes on clilBPs ; eggs 
3-6, oftener 3-4, pale dull greenish -blue, ellipsoidal, about 2.50-1.50. 
656. A. occidenta'lis. (Lat. occidentalis, western.) Florida Heron. Great White Heron. 
Wurdemann's Heron. Similar to the last; larger; dichromatic. Length 54.00; extent 
83.00; wing 19.00-21.00; tail 8.00; bill 6.50; tarsus 8.00-8.50; tibi« bare 5.50. ^ 9, 
adult, (colored phase (wurdemanni Bd.) : Head, with the crest, white, the forehead streaked 
with black edges of the feathers. Under parts white, the sides streaked with black ; lower 
plumes of neck white, mostly streaked with black edges of the feathers. Neck purplish-gray^ 
darker than in A. herodias, with a similar throat-line of white, black, and rufous. Under 
wing-coverts streaked with white; rufous of edge of wing less extensive than in A. herodias ^ 
that of the tibiae paler. Tibiae and soles of feet yellow ; tarsi and top of toes yellowish -green. 
Young : Like young herodias ; top of head dusky, the feathers with w^hitish shaft-lines and 
bases. Lesser wing-coverts speckled with rusty, the under ones with white. Adult ^ ^ in 
white phase (occidentalis And.): Color entirely pure white; bill and eyes yellow; culmen 
greenish at base; lores bluish; legs yellow, greenish in front. Southern Florida; Cuba; 
Jamaica; S. Illinois and Indiana." Eggs 3, 2.75 X 1.67. 
Obs. — A. wardi is described as indistinguishable in its white phase from the last ; in its 
colored phase exactly like the last, but head colored as in herodias; bill 6.50-7-00; tarsus 
8.50-9.00. Florida. (Bull. Nutt. Club, vii, Jan. 1882, p. 5.) 
65T. A. cine'rea. (Lat. cinerea, ashy. Fig. 456.) European Blue Heron. Character similar 
to that of A. herodias ; easily distinguished by the white (not chestnut) tibiae and border of 
wings, and ashy neck. Europe; only N. American as a straggler to Greenland. 
258. HERO'DIAS. (Lat. herodias ; see above, No. 655. Fig. 458.) Great Egret Herons. 
Character of Ardea proper, excepting in plumage; color white; no crest; a long depending 
train of stiff-shafted loose-webbed scapular feathers in the breeding season. Size large, only 
exceeded by the species of Ardea. (See fig. of the European species, H. alba.) 
658. H. egretaa. (0. H. G. hiegro, a heron; Fr. aigrette, a plume; Engl, egret) Great 
White Egret. White Heron. No obviously lengthened feathers on the head at any time; 
in the breeding season, back with a magnificent train of very long plumes of decomposed, fas- 
