Family Ardeide
HERONS AND BITTERNS.
This family contains about seventy-five species distributed in most parts of the globe, but more numerously in the intertropical regions. Generally speaking, Herons are gregarious, nesting and roosting in flocks. While feeding they are more solitary, but each night they regularly return to roost with their kind in a "rookery." Bitterns do not associate in flocks, and are generally found singly or in pairs. As a rule, they feed in grassy marshes, while Herons more commonly resort to the shores of lakes, rivers, bays, or salt-water lagoons. Some species secure their food of frogs, fish, small reptiles, etc., by standing rigidly motionless and waiting for it to come within striking distance, or by wading for it with the utmost caution. Others run rapidly and noisily through the water, trusting to their agility and the rapidity of their spearlike thrusts to supply their wants. Herons, unlike our Ibises and Cranes, fly with their folded neck drawn in between their shoulders. Their voice is a hoarse squawk.
I. Wing over 13.00.
A. Plumage pure white.
KEY TO THE SPECIES. a. Wing 17.00 or over; feathers on the lower neck long, narrow. 192. GREAT WHITE HERON. b. Wing under 17.00; neck-feathers not lengthened. 196. AM. EGRET. B. Upper parts generally slaty or grayish blue.
II. Wing under 13.00. 1. Crown without streaks. 193. WARD'S HERON. 194. GREAT BLUE HERON.
A. Crown white or whitish. a. Wing over 11.00. 198. REDDISH EGRET. a¹. Plumage entirely or mostly white a2. Plumage gray streaked with black; throat and sides of neck 203. YELLOW-CROWNED NIGHT HERON. black HERONS AND BITTERNS. 6. Wing under 11.00. 61. Plumage pure white; legs and bill black; feet yellow. 197. SNOWY HERON. 62. Tips of primaries slate-color; plumage white, sometimes irregularly marked with slaty blue 200. LITTLE BLUE HERON (Im.).
B. Crown umber or reddish brown. a. Head and neck reddish brown; body slate-color. 198. REDDISH EGRET. b. Neck conspicuously streaked; body variegated. 190. AM. BITTERN. C. Crown slaty or slate-blue with sometimes a purplish cast. a. Wing-coverts more or less margined with rufous. b. Wing-coverts without rufous.
D. Crown greenish or bluish black. 199. LOUISIANA HERON. 200. LITTLE BLUE HERON. . a. Wing over 10.00; entire under parts pure white. b. Wing under 10.00. 61. Wing-coverts green 202. BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT HERON. c1. Wing-coverts rufous-chestnut and buff. 201. LITTLE GREEN HERON. ca. Under parts buffy, more or less streaked. 191. LEAST BITTERN. c3. Under parts rufous-chestnut 191.1. CORY'S LEAST BITTERN. 2. Crown streaked.
A. Wing under 10.00; upper parts greenish 201. LITTLE GREEN HERON. B. Wing over 10.00; upper parts brownish or blackish brown streaked with white. a. Upper parts light brown; outer edge of primaries reddish. 202. BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT HERON (Im.). b. Back dark brown; crown nearly black with white streaks; primaries dark slate-color 203. YELLOW-CROWNED NIGHT HERON (Im.). 190. Botaurus lentiginosus (Montag.). AMERICAN BITTERN;