(LITTLE BLUE HERON.)
+Butorides cyanurus+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 125; _iid. P. Z.
S._ 1868, p. 145 (Buenos Ayres); _Durnford, Ibis_, 1878, p. 62
(Buenos Ayres); _Barrows, Auk_, 1884, p. 271 (Entrerios).
+Butorides striata+, _Baird, Brew., et Ridgw. Water-B. N. A._ i.
p. 50.
_Description._--Glaucous grey; beneath ashy; crown crested, black,
with greenish gloss; neck beneath with a band of ferruginous
spots, more or less mixed with black; wings greenish cinereous;
wing-coverts edged with whitish; bill dusky green, feet ashy
yellowish: whole length 14·0 inches, wing 6·5, tail 2·5. _Female_
similar.
_Hab._ South America.
The Little Blue Heron, though widely distributed, is not anywhere a
common bird. I have always seen them singly, for it loves a hermit-life,
and the feeding-ground it prefers is a spot on the borders of a marshy
stream shut in and overshadowed on all sides by trees and tall rushes.
There the bird sits silent and solitary on a projecting root or dead
branch; or stands motionless and knee-deep in the water, intent on the
small fry it feeds on. For whole months it will be found every day in
the same place. When intruded on in its haunt it erects the feathers of
its head and neck, looking strangely alarmed or angry, and flies away
uttering a powerful harsh grating cry.
Its nesting-habits I do not know; but Mr. Barrows says that it
undoubtedly breeds near Concepcion on the Lower Uruguay, where it is
abundant in spring and summer.