172 BIRDS OF THE BAHAMA ISLANDS. 
of slate-color; wing-coverts, green, feathers edged with rufous-white ; 
carpus edged with white; tail, greenish; upper mandible, black; 
lower mandible, mostly yellow; legs, yellowish green; upper breast- 
feathers lengthened into a sort of plume, covering a bare space. 
Length 16, wing 6.50, tail 2.40, tarsus 1.85, bill 2.30. 
An abundant resident, frequenting the marshes and small inland 
pools. We found them very abundant at Inagua. Incubation com- 
mences about May 10. On May 27 I procured a number of their 
nests, which I found common among the mangroves bordering the 
inland lake. The nest is roughly constructed of small sticks, loosely 
put together. The eggs are from three to four in number, of a pale 
bluish green color. 
Gosse, in writing of this species, says, “The flight of all the 
Herons is flagging and laborious. I have been amused to see a 
Humming-bird chasing a Heron, — the minuteness and arrowy 
swiftness of the one contrasting strangely with the expanse of wing 
v 
and unwieldy motion of the other. The little aggressor appears 
to restrain his powers in order to annoy his adversary, dodging 
around him and pecking at him like one of the small frigates of 
Drake or Frobisher peppering one of the unwieldy galleons of the 
illfated Armada. Now and then, however, I have noticed this 
and other species of Heron intermit this laborious motion, and sail 
swiftlyand gracefully on balanced wings, particularly when inclining 
their flight towards the earth. When wounded so as to be unable 
to fly, the Green Bittern seeks to escape by running, which it does 
