282 BIRDS OF NEW ENGLAND AND EASTERN NEW YORK 



Green Heron. Butorides virescens 

 17.00 



Ad. — Top of head glossy greenish-black ; wings, back, and tail 

 greenish; the longer wing-feathers with a bluish tinge; sides of 

 throat and neck chestnut ; a narrow strip of black and white 

 down the middle of the neck ; under parts brownish-gray. Im. — 

 Similar, but under parts white, streaked with brown. 



Nest, of twigs, in trees. Eggs, pale green. 



The Green Heron is a common summer resident of New 

 York and New England, arriving late in April or early in 

 May, and staying till October. It feeds in the marshy coves 

 of rivers or ponds, or at the edges of swamps. When 

 startled it rises with a harsh quak, and after the legs have 

 been picked up, and a tuck taken in the long neck, the 

 broad wings take the bird off over the tree-tops or around 

 a protecting bend of the shore. When in the air, it looks 

 about the size of a crow, but flies with slower, heavier 

 strokes and shows a shorter tail. When the bird lights, it 

 is very apt to raise its head-feathers somewhat, giving its 

 head a peculiar bushy appearance. Inland and south of 

 Vermont and New Hampshire it is, in the summer, almost 

 the only heron to be seen. As the train runs along a shal- 

 low river, like the Connecticut, individuals may be observed 

 almost every mile, flying or standing. 



The greenish or bluish-green color of the wings and its 

 smaller size should distinguish it from the Night Heron. 

 The green shows only as an iridescent color on the wings ; 

 the quill-feathers, and in old birds the back also, are bluish, 

 so that many an amateur catching this color has jumped 

 to the conclusion that he has seen the Little Blue Heron 

 of the South. There is no danger of confusing the Green 

 Heron with the Great Blue Heron, a bird that seems to the 

 excited eye as tall as a man and as broad-winged as an 

 eagle. The Bittern, the only other heron-like bird to be 

 kept in mind, stiffens, when standing, into a vertical posi- 



