BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
61 
snails, frogs and lizards, to which fare it also adds at times the seeds of 
the pond lilies and other aquatic plants.” In April, 1885, I visited an 
island in a small lake in Orange county, Florida, where this species, also 
the Louisiana, Little Blue, and Green Herons, were breeding on low 
bushes. I shot seven Snowy Herons, and found in the viscera of all 
only the remains of fish. 
Ardea tricolor ruficollis (Gosse.). 
Louisiana Heron. 
\ 
Description. 
Adult in breeding season . — Bill four inches or a little more in length, and very- 
slender. Bill (dried skin) bluish-black, and yellowish about base ; lores and naked 
skin around eyes yellowish ; eyes reddish-yellow ; legs dusky bluish-yellow. The 
three or four longer occipital plumes, lower part of back, rump, sides, under parts 
generally, edge of wing, axillars, lining of wings, chin and upper part of throat, 
white ; front and top of head, sides of same, malar region, and most of feathers on 
sides of long neck, bluish-slate color ; upper tail coverts white and bluish; greater 
part of crest, lower portion and back of neck reddish-purple. Long fine scapular 
plumes, light brownish gray, quite pale at ends ; the white throat is continuous with 
a reddish-brown streak (brightest on upper third of neck) which narrows and be- 
comes less distinct, as it extends down in front. The young are never white as in 
Ardea cmrulea : they lack the long occipital plumes, also the fine scapular feathers ; 
the head and neck light brownish-red ; chin, throat and malar region white ; neck 
in front streaked with white and brownish. Length about 27 inches ; extent about 
36 inches. 
Habitat . — Gulf states, Mexico, Central America and West Indies, casually north- 
ward to New Jersey and Indiana. 
The Louisiana Heron, more or less abundant in many of the south 
Atlantic and gulf states, I have never seen in Pennsylvania, where it 
has been observed only as a rare or accidental visitor in the late summer 
or autumn. 
Stragglers have been seen, at irregular intervals, by the following 
named gentlemen in their respective localities: Dr. John W. Detwiller, 
Bethlehem,Northampton couaty; D.Frank Keller, Beading, Berks county, 
and Dr. W. Yan Fleet, Benovo, Clinton county. This handsome bird, and 
one which is particularly graceful in its movements, I found breeding in 
company with other species on low bushes in Florida, in March and 
April, 1885. Their rather fiat nests were made entirely of small sticks. 
The bluish-green eggs, three to five in number, measure about 1.75 inches 
long and a little more than 1.25 inches broad. The viscera of eleven of 
these birds, which were killed at this nesting place, contained fish, frogs 
and snails. 
