. Key to North American birds; containing a concise account of every species of living and fossil bird at present known from the continent north of the Mexican and United States boundary. Illustrated by 6 steel plates and upwards of 250 woodcuts. Birds. 266 ARDEIDiE, HERONS. tlie plumage is nearly unchangeable, are very few. Indeed, probably no birds show greater changes of plumage, with age and season, than nearly all the herons. Their beautiful plumes are only worn during the breeding season; the young invariably lack them, and there are still more remarkable changes of plumage in many cases
. Key to North American birds; containing a concise account of every species of living and fossil bird at present known from the continent north of the Mexican and United States boundary. Illustrated by 6 steel plates and upwards of 250 woodcuts. Birds. 266 ARDEIDiE, HERONS. tlie plumage is nearly unchangeable, are very few. Indeed, probably no birds show greater changes of plumage, with age and season, than nearly all the herons. Their beautiful plumes are only worn during the breeding season; the young invariably lack them, and there are still more remarkable changes of plumage in many cases. Thus, the young may be pure white while the adults are dark colored, as in the small blue heron; and sometimes even, as in the remarkable case of our reddish egret, most individuals change from white to a dark plumage after two years, while others appear to remain white their whole lives,. Fig. 176. Great Bine Heron. and others again are dark from the nest. Many species are pure white at all times, and to these the name of " egret" more particularly belongs ; but I should correct a prevalent impression that an egret is anything particularly diflerent from other herons. The name, a corruption of the French word "aigrette," simply refers to the plumes that ornament most of the herons, white or otherwise, and has no classificatory meaning ; its application, in any given instance, is purely conventional. The colors of the bill, lores and feet are extremely variable, not only with age or season, bat as individual peculiarities ; sometimes the two legs of the same specimen arc not colored exactly alike. The 9 is commonly smaller than the (J. The normal individual variability in stature and relative length of parts. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original Coues, Elliott, 1842-1899. Sal
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectbirds, bookyear1872
