THE GREEN HERON 



By T. GILBERT PEARSON 



THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF AUDUBON SOCIETIES 

 Educational Leaflet No. 66 



The Green Heron is the smallest North American member of that 

 subfamily of birds sometimes called True Herons. The expanse of 

 wings, from tip to tip, of one of ordinary size, is two feet; when the bird 

 stretches its neck to its greatest length the distance from the end of its 

 tail to the point of its bill is seventeen inches/ Its legs, like those of all 

 herons, are sufficiently long to enable it to wade in shallow water. These 

 are destitute of feathers along the greater part of their 

 length, a characteristic common to all birds that are 

 in the habit of wading much in the water. The bill 

 is long, very sharp at the end, and well adapted to seizing slippery prey. 



Many species of herons inhabit chiefly extensive marshes, the shores 

 of lakes and large streams, or such vast swamps as exist in the South. 

 The Green Heron, however, does not confine its travels or stopping- 

 places to such localities ; wherever ponds, creeks, or even smaller streams 

 occur, especially if these be in open country, there you are likely to find 

 this bird. Because of this general distribution, more persons, probably, 

 have a bowing acquaintance with the Green Heron than with any other 

 member of the family. 



It is in part nocturnal in its habits, and, in many regions of the 

 United States, it is not uncommon to hear its guttural note when, on 

 still summer nights, it wings its way across the country from one feed- 

 ing-ground to another. If you chance to be working your way along a 

 creek-bank, you may startle the bird from its roost in the willows, or 

 from a feeding-place among the rushes or tall grass growing in shallow 

 water. On such occasions it will fly away with a startled cry, sometimes 

 passing entirely out of sight; but, if not unduly alarmed, it will often 

 alight on a tree or snag near by, and, with jerking tail and raised 

 crest, survey the intruder with ill-concealed suspicion and disapproval. 



The writer well recalls the first Green Heron's 

 nest he ever saw. This was down in the pine-barren ^^^f 8 ' '" the 



e i T~>I i rr>i i sink-hole 



region of central Honda. The country there is 

 largely underlaid with soft limestone, through which innumerable under- 

 ground streams gurgle along their subterranean courses. * 



Here and there the rock becomes disintegrated and washed away 

 to such an extent that the earth above gives way and falls into the 

 cavern beneath. Thus are formed the many "natural wells" and "sink- 

 holes" that one finds scattered about the country. In a bush growing 

 from the side of the rock, and hanging over the water in one of these 



