432 Wheelock, Nesting Habits of the Green Heron. [oct. 



NESTING HABITS OF THE GREEN HERON. 



BY IRENE G. WHEELOCK. 



Plate VIII. 



While by no means a rare bird in southern Wisconsin, Bu- 

 torides virescens is yet sufficiently uncommon to arouse some interest 

 in his domestic affairs. Studied from the standpoint of an econo- 

 mist he merits the hearty support of every bird lover and snake 

 hater on account of the untiring zeal with which he provides young 

 snakes for the nourishing of his brood. Possibly he is a poorer 

 fisherman than most of the heron family, for fish forms a compara- 

 tively small part of his diet. Snails, tadpoles, small frogs, snakes 

 and crayfish are his chief food if one may judge by that given to 

 the young. In studying the habits of most species, we have found 

 it necessary to use a miniature stomach pump, in order to ascertain 

 what food had been given to the nestlings. Heron infants, on the 

 contrary, obligingly disgorge the contents of their crops whenever 

 an intruder approaches the nest, thereby rendering a postprandial 

 menu an easy matter. 



Of the several broods of this species under observation during 

 June and July, 1906, four were in evergreen trees, one in an apple 

 tree, a part of a large orchard at some distance from water, and one 

 in a small cotton wood at the edge of a swamp. The photographs 

 illustrating this article were taken at the different nests as was most 

 convenient for all concerned. 



On June 16 we discovered the nests in the pines. At that 

 date every nest contained young apparently about two weeks old, 

 one brood numbering four, one five, and the others not being 

 investigated closely. The nests were all at about the same height, 

 twenty feet from the ground, about one half the diameter of a 

 crow's nest, but much less bulky and less carefully built. For, 

 smile as you will, Corvus americanus is a careful builder. Every 

 nest of his that I have investigated has been strongly put together 

 and lined with a felted mat of cow hair. But herons are inured 

 to hardships from their birth, it seems, for no lining of any sort 

 was found in any of the nests, the young reposing on the coarse 

 twigs in the midst of indescribable uncleanness. 



