190 BULLETIN 135, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Food. — The food of the green heron varies somewhat with the 

 locality. In birds taken in salt marshes, I have found the stomach 

 contents to consist of the minnows common in the little creeks to- 

 gether with a variable amount of sand. Live stomach worms are 

 also common, a fact mentioned by other observers. In regions of 

 fresh water, tadpoles, water insects and their larvae, crayfish, and small 

 bony fishes are common articles of diet. Food is also gathered in 

 the uplands by these birds and their stomachs have been found 

 to contain earth worms, crickets, grasshoppers, snakes, and small 

 mammals. Grasshoppers in very large numbers have sometimes been 

 found. B. S. Bowdish (1902) says of the food of the green heron in 

 Porto Rico: "Several stomachs examined contained respectively, 

 remains of lizards and crabs, and one whole fish about 6 inches long; 

 a kind of water beetle about three quaters of an inch long, many 

 entire; crawfish and grasshoppers; 11 crawfish; small live worms." 

 Oscar E. Baynard (1912) reports that the stomach of an adult green 

 heron taken in Florida contained 6 small crayfish, 16 grasshoppers, 2 

 cut worms and the remains of small frogs. 



Behavior. — WiUiam Brewster (1906) said of the green heron: 



Like the crow and black duck, it is at once a wary and venturesome bird, 

 endowed with sufficient intelligence to discriminate between real and imaginarj' 

 dangers and often making itself quiet at home in noisy, thickly settled neighbor- 

 hoods where food is abundant and where it is not too much molested. 



The green heron is equally at home in the salt water marshes and 

 in the regions of fresh water. It is a day feeder but prefers the early 

 morning and late afternoon, often taking a nap at midday. One of 

 the familiar sounds and sights by salt creek or by river or pond is 

 the frightened cry of this bird and its awkward flight over the water. 

 The names "skeow" and "fly-up- the-creek " are expressive of these at- 

 tributes. The classic names "chalk-line" and "shite-poke" express 

 the commonly observed physiological effect of fright. This effect 

 must incidentally serve a useful purpose in bhnding the stealthily 

 creeping pursuer, be it carnivore or savage. 



The length of the neck of the green heron in life is a most variable 

 one and this bird well deserves to be called "rubber neck." Early 

 one May morning I watched unseen one of these birds with its neck 

 drawn in creeping along the branches of a spruce. In the dim light 

 it looked more like a mammal than a bird. Suddenly it elongated 

 its neck and seized with its bill a twig of a near-by elm, but was 

 unable to break it off. It tried another and another and finally suc- 

 ceeded in tearing the green twig off from its base. I watched another 

 bird as it awoke from its morning nap and, as it stretched its neck to 

 an equal length with its body and shook out its feathers, the general 



