152 
BLUE HERON. 
while others are placed high ; for, like the rest of its tribe, this species is 
rather fond of placing its tenement over or near the liquid element. 
The eggs are usually three, rarely four; and I have never found a nest of 
this species containing five eggs, as is stated by Wilson, who probably 
found a nest of the Green Heron containing that number among others 
of the present species. They measure an inch and three quarters in lena'th, 
by an inch and a quarter in breadth, being about the size of those of 
Ardea candidissima, though rather more elongated, and precisely of the 
same colour. 
The young bird is at first almost destitute of feathers; but scantily covered 
with yellowish-white down. When fully fledged, its bill and legs are 
greenish-black, and its plumage pure white, or slightly tinged with cream- 
colour, the tips of the three outer primaries light greyish-blue. Of this 
colour the bird remains until the breeding season, when, however, some in- 
dividuals exhibit a few straggling pale blue feathers. When they have en- 
tered on their second year, these young birds become spotted with deeper 
blue on some parts of the body, or on the head and neck, thus appearing 
singularly patched with that colour and pure white, the former increasing 
with the age of the bird in so remarkable a manner, that you may see speci- 
mens of these birds with portions even of the pendent feathers of their head 
or shoulders so marked. And these are produced by full moultings, by 
which I mean the unexpected appearance, as it were, of feathers growing 
out of the skin of the bird coloured entirely blue, as is the case in many of 
our land birds. In all these stages of plumage, and from the first spring 
after birth, the young birds breed with others, as is equally the case with 
Ardea rufcscens. You may see a pure white individual paired with one of 
a full blue colour, or with one patched with blue and white. The young, 
after leaving their parents, remain separate from the old birds until the next 
breeding season. At no period can the young of this species be confounded 
with, or mistaken for that of the Ardea candidissima , by a person really 
acquainted with these birds, for the Blue Heron is not only larger than 
the latter, but the very colour of its feet and legs is perfectly distinctive. 
Indeed, during the time when the young Blue Heron is quite white 
(excepting on the tips of the outer primaries) it would be easier to con- 
found it with the young of the Reddish Egret, Ardea rufescens, than with 
that of any other, were the feathers of its hind head and neck of the same 
curious curled appearance as those of that species. 
My friend John Bachman informs me, that in South Carolina, this spe- 
cies not un frequently breeds in the company of the Louisiana Heron, tne 
nests and eggs of which, he adds, are very similar. He has specimens of 
these birds in all the different stages which I have described. At New Or- 
