202 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Moriches, L. I. July 18S9. (T. M. Lawrence). Butcher, Notes 

 Shelter Island, L. I. Apr. 7, 24, iSgi. (Byram). Butcher, Notes 

 Montauk, L. I. Apr. 20, 1898. Butcher, Notes 

 East Rockaway, L. I. Aug. 1899. Braislin, Auk, 17: 69 

 Hempstead bav, L. I. Summer 1900. Braislin, Auk, 19: 146 



Also reported as seen at Oneonta by Yager in August 1899; and at Binghamton, May 

 8-12, 1900 by Miss Lillian Hyde 



Butorides virescens (Linnaeus) 

 Green Heron 



Plate 23 



Ardea virescens Linnaeus. Syst. Nat. Ed. 10. 1758. 1:144 



BeKav. Zool. N. Y. 1844. pt 2, p. 224, fig. 188 

 A. 0. 'U. Check List. Ed. 2. 1895. No. 201 



bittorl'des, Lat. bntor. bittern, and Gr. elSos, resemblance; vires' ceiis, Lat., 



greenish 



Description. The top of head crested and greenish black; rest of head, 

 and the sides and back of the neck rich chestnut, washed with vinaceous; 

 throat and narrow hne down the foreneck whitish streaked with blackish; 

 back and wing coverts green, the latter edged with buffy white, and the 

 elongated interscapular feathers washed with glaucous or bluish grav; 

 under parts brownish ash; quills and tail dusky with a plumbeous shade; 

 bill dusky, base of lower mandible and lores yellow; legs greenish vellow. 

 Young: Similar but the head and neck more rustv than chestnut and 

 streaked with ocherous buff, no dorsal ])lumes; the wing coverts l)roadlv 

 margined with buffy. 



Length 15.5-22 inches; extent 24-26; wnng 6.4-8; tail 2.65; bill 2-2.5; 

 tarsus 2; tibia bare .9-1. 



Field marks. At a distance the Little green heron does not appear 

 green and the old birds are much more likely to show a bluish cast from the 

 plumbeous shading of the back and the wing quills. It may be distinguished 

 from the bitterns, the only other small herons common in the State, b}' its 

 prevailing dark coloration, while the bitterns are of a yellowish brown or 

 ocherous hue. 



Distribution. The Green heron is common in tropical and temperate 

 America as far north as Manitoba and New Britnswick. In New York it is 

 quite generally distributed, except in the Adirondack region, and probalily 



