Green Heron 87 



Green Heron. Butorides virescens. 



A.O.U. Checklist no 201 — Colorado record— Cooke 09, p. 314. 



Description. — Crown with a long, soft crest, and lengthened, narrow 

 feathers of the back lustrous green ; wing-quills and tail dusky- 

 greenish with a narrow white edge to the wing ; coverts green with 

 tawny edgings ; neck rich purplish-chestnut with the throat-line 

 variegated dusky and white ; below mostly brownish-ash with white 

 on the belly ; iris and eyelids bright yellow, bill greenish-black, feet 

 dull yellowish-green. Length 12 ; wing 7-0 ; tail 2-5 ; culmen 2.45 ; 

 tarsus 2-05. 



Distribution. Temperate North America, from Oregon and Ontario 

 south thorough the West Indies and Central America as far as Brazil. 



Though not uncommon in Kansas, this little Heron has only 

 recently been met with in Colorado. Edward A. Preble of the 

 Biological Siu-vey took one at Loveland, July 23rd, 1895. It has 

 probably been overlooked and should not be really rare. 



Genus NYCTICORAX. 



Birds of medium size, wing 12 — 13, with a short neck, stout and 

 somewhat compressed bill ; the culmen, tarsus and middle toe with 

 claw, all being approximately equal ; tail short, of twelve feathers ; 

 tibio-tarsus feathered except for about half an inch ; no elongated or 

 decomposed pkunes except those on the occiput. 



A cosmopohtan genus with eight or nine species ; only one in North 

 America. 



Black-crowned Night Heron. 

 Nycticorax nycticorax ncevius. 



A.O.U. Checklist no 202— Colorado Records— H. G. Smith 87, p. 285 ; 

 96, p. 65 ; 08, p. 185 ; Morrison 89, p. 166 ; Cooke 94, p. 183 ; 97, pp. 19, 

 61, 198 ; Dille 03, p. 74 ; Henderson 03, p. 234 ; 09, p. 227 ; Markman, 

 07, p. 155 ; Rockwell 08, p. 159, 10, p. 113. 



Description. — Adult — Crown and nape, centre of back and scapulars 

 glossy greenish-black ; rest of the upper-parts pale lavender-grey ; 

 below, including the forehead, sides of the face and neck, white ; two 

 or three long filimentous plumes, generally white, froru the occiput ; 

 iris red, bill black, legs yellow. Length 26-0 ; wing 12-5 ; tail 4-75 ; 

 culmen 3-15 ; tarsus 3-20. 



The female is smaller — wing ll-S ; after the breeding season the 

 occipital plumes are lost. The young birds are greyish-brown with 

 paler edges to some of the feathers, and spotted conspicuously with 

 white ; the crown darker, the under-parts paler, streaked with dusky 

 and bu2y. 



