WATER BIRDS. 143 



cotinty, but Dr. Gibbs did not personally verify this statement, and I have 

 been unable to get any confirmation of it. The statement appears not 

 to have been published by Dr. Atkins, but occurred in a letter or manuscript 

 which is not now to be found. In Covert's manuscript list of 1894-95 we 

 find the statement "One specimen obtained at Geddes [near Ann Arbor], 

 in May, 1876, by the late Dr. Joshua Jones of Chicago, 111., formerly of 

 Ann Arbor. That specimen is still (1895) in what remains of his collection 

 at Ann Arbor." We have been unable to verify this record. 



Four specimens were taken at or near Aylmer, Ont., an inland town 

 nine miles north of Lake Erie, in the summer of 1901 (Auk, XIX, 94), 

 and there are several records for the species in Ohio (Auk, XVIII, 392) 

 and Wisconsin (Kumlien and HoUister, p. 36). It was formerly abundant 

 along the lower Wabash Valley in Indiana, where it remained all summer 

 and nested (Butler, Birds of Indiana, 1897, p. 664). 



In Florida and the Gulf States, where it is an abundant species, it is said 

 to feed mostly by day, to be always found in flocks, and to nest in com- 

 munities, placing the nest of sticks on bushes or low trees in or very near 

 the water. The eggs are three or four, blue, unspotted, and average 1.73 

 by 1.28 inches. 



The immature birds, white or largely white, are often mistaken for White 

 Egrets, and from the fact that these are commonly found associated with 

 the blue adult birds, although flocks of either color are also found by 

 themselves, the adult birds are often called Blue Egrets. But these birds 

 never develop the slender and beautiful "aigrette" plumes, and con- 

 sequently are not in demand by the plume hunter. As a result the species 

 is still fairly abundant over large areas in the south where the Egrets have 

 been almost entirely exterminated. 



TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 



"Adult with scapular and jugular plumes elongated, narrowly lanceolate, compact- 

 webbed; occipital plumes slender, only a few of them much elongated. Color of adult 

 usually uniform dark slate blue, with maroon-colored head and neck, but not unfrequently 

 'pied' with white, or even almost wliolly white, with bluish tips to longer quills. Young 

 usually pure white, with longer quills (primaries) tipped witli slate-blue. 



"Length 20 to 29.50 inches; wing 9 to 10.60; culmen 2.70 to 3.30; tarsus 3.15 to 4." 

 (Ridgway) 



75. Green Heron. Butorides virescens virescens Linn. (201) 



Synonyms: Green Bittern, Little Green Heron, Poke, Fly-up-the-creek. — Ardea 

 virescens, Linn., 1758, Wils., Nutt., Aud., and others. — Butorides virescens, Bonap., 

 1855, Baird, Ridgw., Coues and most recent authors. 



Figures 35, 36, 37, 38. 



The measurements and general green color of the l)ack and wings serve 

 to separate this heron from any other. It is smaller than any other member 

 of the family except the Least liittern and Cory's liittcrn. 



Distribution. — Temperate North America, from Ontario and Oregon 

 southward to Columbia, Venezuela, and the West Indies. Ikn-muda. 



This perhaps is the best known of the smaller herons in Southern jMich- 

 igan, but it does not seem to extend far northward. It is abundant in 



