GREEN HERON 



In June 1924, I saw immense numbers of 

 them in blue and in white plumage on the mud 

 flats at low tide along the beach east of old 

 Panama City. 



6. Butorides virescens virescens (Linnaeus) 

 Green Heron 



Butorides virescens hypernotius STONE, Proc. Phila. 

 Acad. Nat. Sci., 1918, p. 247. 



Length about 457 mm. (18.00 in.). 



Sexes alike. Adult. Top of head greenish 

 black; rest of head and neck maroon chestnut, 

 the throat white, and the foreneck with a white 

 streak mixed with chestnut extending down it; 

 back and wings dark greenish, the wing coverts 

 tipped with buff and the elongate scapulars 

 grayish; breast and abdomen whitish. Bill 

 dark above, yellowish below; legs greenish yel- 

 low, rather short. 



Young. Similar but duller, the neck dull 

 rusty shaded with buff; the under parts streaked 

 with dusky; the light border of the wing coverts 

 broader. 



This small heron is common in winter and 

 spring along the rivers, and elsewhere in the 

 vicinity -of water. It is more or less solitary, 

 usually allowing a close approach and then fly- 

 ing off, uttering several shrill squawks of alarm. 

 Stone designates it as a migrant. There is some 

 question as to whether a race of this bird breeds 

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