131* BIRDS OF ILLINOIS. 



Tileum with a full crest of broadly lanceolate, compactly webbed feathers, these longer 

 and more narrowly lanceolate on the occiput. Scapulars and interscapulars elongated and 

 lanceolate in the adult, but not reaching the end of the tail (very much as in Ardea). 



Ardea virescens Linn. 



GREEN HERON. 



Popular synonyms. "Schytepoko;" "Squawk;" Fly-up-the-Creek; Booby (parts of Florida); 

 Crab-catcher (Jamaica); Martineta cangrejero (Mexico). 



Ardea stellaris minima'GATESBY, Carolina, i, 1754, pi. 80 (adult). 



Ardea virescens Linn. S. N. ed. 10, 1758, 144, No. 15 (based, in part, on the above) ; ed. 12, 



1766, i, 238, No. 20— Wils. Am. Orn. vii, 1813, 97, pi. 61.— Nutt. Man. ii, 1834, 63.— Aud. 



Orn. Biog. iv, 1838, 217, pi. 333; Synop. 1839, 264; Birds Am. vi, 1843. 105, pi. 367— Coues. 



Key, 1872, 268; Check List. 1873, No. 457; Birds N. W. 1874, 522— Reichenow, J. f. O. 



1877, 255— A. O. U. Check List, 1886, No. 201— Ridgw. Man. N. Am. B. 1887. 132. 

 Butorides virescens Bonap. Consp. ii, 1855, 128— Baibd, Birds N. Am. 1858, 676; Cat. N. 



Am. B. 1859. No. 493— Ridgw. Norn. N. Am. B. 1881, No. 494— Coues, Check List, 2d. 



ed. 1882. No. 663— B. B. & R. Water B. N. Am. i, 1834, 50. 

 Crabier, de la Louisiane Buff. PI. Enl. 1770-84, pi. 909 (adult). 

 Crabier tachete, de la Martinique Buff. PL Enl. 912 (young). 

 Green Heron Lath. Synop. iii, 1785, 68. 

 Louisiana Heron Lath. t. c. 81. 



Ardea ludoviciana Gmel. S. N. i, pt. ii, 1788, 630. No. 39 (based on PI. Enl. 909). 

 ? Blue Heron, var. B. Lath. Synop. iii, 1785, 75 (Queen Charlotte's Sound). 

 A rdea chloroptera Bodd. Tabl. P. E. 1783, pi. 909. 

 Cancroma maculata Bodd. t. c. pi. 912. 

 ? Ardea virgata, Gmel S. N. i, pt. ii, 1788, 643. 



Hab. The whole of temperate North America, West Indies, Middle America, and 

 northern South America, to Venezuela; north to Ontario and Oregon; abundant both in the 

 Pacific States and Eastern Province, but apparently wanting in the Middle Province; Ber- 

 mudas. 



Sp. Chab. Adult: Entire pileum, including oocipital crest, glossy darn metal'ic bottle- 

 green; rest of the head and neck, except throat and foreneck, rich chestnut, varying from 

 a cinnamon shade to a fine purplish maroon; bare orbital space bordered posteriorly with 

 greenish black, from the lower part of which projects backward, from the rictus, a short 

 stripe of the same; below this, along the upper edge of the malar region, a narrow stripe 

 of white, the lower malar feathers being mixed black and rufous, forming another stripe; 

 th oat and foreneck, from chin to chest, white, marked with broad longitudinal dashes 

 of dusky. Lower parts ash-gray, the lining of the wing somewhat spotted, and distinctly 

 bordered, outwardly, with creamy white. Scapular plumes glaucous-plumbeous, with a 

 green reflection in certain lights, the shafts white. Wing-coverts and rectrices brilliant 

 metallic bottle-green, the former distinctly bordered, narrowly, with fulvous-white; these 

 borders on the lesser-coverts, more rusty or fulvous ; rectrices immaculate bottle-green; 

 remiges and primary-coverts plumbeous, with a green reflection, the inner primaries and 

 adjoining secondaries with narrow crescentic tips of white, the coverts with terminal del- 

 toid spots of the same. Bill deep black, the lower mandible sometimes partly yellowish or 

 greenish; lores and orbits varying from olive-green to bright yellow; iris gamboge-yellow; 

 legs and feet olive-green or olive-yellow, the scutellae more greenish; claws horn-color. 

 Young: Pileum, including crest, as in the adult, but usually streaked with dark rusty an- 

 teriorly; sides of the head and neck dull dark rusty, indistinctly streaked with light ochra- 

 ceous, or buff; lower parts white, tinged with buff, and striped with dusky. Back, scapu- 

 ,ars. and rump uniform dull dusky-green, some of the feathers indistinctly bordered with 



