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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 nock 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 ccerulea : 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 county; D.Frank Keller, Beading, Berks county, 
and Dr. W. Van 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 flat 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. 
