SPECIES 7. ^RDEA LUDOVICMNA. 
LOUISIANA HERON. 
[Plate LXIV.— Fig. 1.] 
Pkalh’s Museum, A'b. 3750. 
This is a rare and delicately formed species; occasionally 
found on the swampy river shores of South Carolina, but more 
frequently along the borders of the Mississippi, particularly be- 
low 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 spe- 
cies. 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 
inches, of a yellowish green at the base, black towards the point, 
and very sharp; irides yellow; chin and throat white, dotted 
with ferruginous and some blue; the rest of the neck is of a light 
vinous purple, intermixed on the lower part next the breast with 
dark slate-coloured plumage; the whole feathers of the neck are 
long, narrow and pointed; head crested, consisting first of a 
VOL. III. — L 
* See also Buffon, vol. vii, p. 378. 
