144 



MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. 



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suitable places as far north as 

 Port Huron, Owosso, Ionia and 

 Grand Rapids, but north of 

 this latitude it becomes in- 

 frequent or unknown. Mr. 

 Newell A. Eddy states that it 

 has not been taken in Bay 

 county so far as he knows. Dr. 

 Dunham took a single specimen 

 in Kalkaska county, May 2, 

 1898, but says it is not common 

 there. Kneeland records it for 

 Keweenaw Point in his list of 

 1859, and Major Boies reported 

 a single one seen on the St. 

 Mary's River (Hay Lake), in 

 Chippewa county, but these are 

 the only reports from the Upper 

 Peninsula. 



The Green Heron enters the 

 state from the south about the 

 first of May, the exact date 

 varying about a week either 

 way according to season and 



locality. Nesting begins before the middle of May, and from the fact 

 that occupied nests are occasionally found in July it seems hkely that a 

 second brood is reared sometimes. 



It gets its common name of " Fly-up-the-creek " from its abundance 

 along the wooded shores of our slow streams and the manner in which it 



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Fig. 35. Green Heron. 



From Baird, Brewer and Ridgway's Water Birds of 



North America. (Little, Brown & Co.) 



Fig. 36. Green Heron. 

 Head, showing occipital crest and naked lores. (Original.) 



will keep ahead of a boat, making short flights of 50 to 100 yards each 

 time the boat gets too near, and after such a flight usually alighting in a 

 tree or bush. Unlike most of our herons it does not seem to be at all social, 

 and is never found feeding in flocks, but is seen singly or more frequently 

 in pairs. I once saw five individuals along the shores of a muddy pond 

 of a couple of acres, but this was exceptional. It is rather crepuscular 

 in its habits, feeding and flying mostly at morning and evening, but fre- 

 quently heard during moonlight nights, and often abroad all day during 



