500° BIRDS—ARDEID.A. 
GENUS ARDEA. Linneeus. 
Decomposing feathers ( ‘‘ powder-down-tracts ”), on back over hips, belly under hips, 
and on breart. Back and head in adult in breediug seaeon, with elongated feathers or 
plumes. Tail feathers twelve. Tibia bare the lower third or more. Sexes similar. 
ARDEA HEROpDIAS L. 
Great Blue Heron. 
Ardea herodias, KIRTLAND, Ohio Geolog. Surv., 183", 165; Family Visit r, i, 1850, 121— 
Cops, Zocl. Sketch of Ohio, Walling and Grays’ Atlas of Ohio, 1872, 25.—WHEATON, 
Food of Birds, etc., Ohio Agric. Rep. for 1874, 573; Reprint, 1875, 18.—LANGDON, 
Cat. Birds of Cin., 1877, 15; Revised List, Journ. Cin. Soc, Nat. Hist., i, 1879, 1e3; 
Reprint, 17 ; Summer Birds, ib., iii, 1880, 227. 
Ard-aherodia, WHEATON, Ohio Agric. Rep. for 1860, 368, 377; Reprint, 1861, 10. 
Ardea herodias, LINNZUs, Syst. Nat., i, 1766, 247. | 
Back without peculiar plumes at any season, but scapulars lengthened and lanceolate ; 
an occipital crest, two feathers of which are long and filamentons; long loose feathers 
on the Jowerneck. Length, about 4 feet; extent, 6; bill, 54 inches; tarsus, 64; middle 
toe and claw, 5; wing, L¢—20; tail, 7. Female much smaller than malv. Adult of both 
sexes grajish-blue above, the neck pale purplish-brown with a white throat-lins, the 
head black with a white frontal patch; the under parts mostly black, streaked with 
white; tibia, edge of wing and some of the lower neck feathers orange-brown; bill and 
eyes yellow, culmen dusky, lores and legs greenish. The young differ considerably but 
are never white and cannot be confounded with any of the succeeding. 
Habitat, North America. North to Hudson’s Bay and Sitka. South to Guatemala and 
Galapagos. West Indies, Breeds throughout its range, and winters in the South. 
Common summer resident, somewhat restricted during the breeding 
season, but at other times generally distributed in all suitable locations, 
from March or earlier to November or later. In December, 1880, a 
specimen was brought me which was killed on a rapid shallow of Walnut 
4. Buroripgs.—Size small. Adult with scapular plumes elongated, coaipact- 
webbed, lanceolate, bat with rounded tips. Feathers of the pileum elon- 
gated, lanceolate. Jugular plumes broad, blended. Culmen longer than 
tarsus; middle toe almost equal to tarsus. Color much variegated. 
5. NYCTIARDEA.—Size medium. Adult with several extremely elongated linear, 
compact-webbed occipital plumes. Noseapular plumes. Jugular feathers 
broad, blended. Culmen about equal to tarsus; tarsusslightly longer than 
middle toe. Lateral outlines of billconcave; gonys nearly straight. Adult 
and young exceedingly different in plumage. 
Sub-family BoTAURINZ. 
6. BoTaURUS.—Size medium, or rather large. Sexes similar; young similar to 
adult. 
7. ARDETTA.—Size extremely small (the smallest of Herons). Sexes dissimilar 
(in all species ?); young slightly different from adult. 
