56 NORTH AMERICAN HERONS AND THEIR ALLIES. 



Green Heron. Butorides virescens virescens (Linnaeus). 



Range. The green herons as a whole include several forms which 

 range over most of the United States, all of Mexico, Central Amer- 

 ica, and the West Indies, and in South America are found in north- 

 eastern Colombia, northern Venezuela, and northeastern Brazil. 



Breeding range. The typical form, true vircscens, breeds north 

 to St. John, New Brunswick (Chamberlain) ; Montreal, Canada 

 (Wintle) ; Loughboro Lake, Ontario (Clarke) ; Guelph, Ontario 

 (Klugh) ; Kelley Brook, Wis. (Shoenebeck) ; Minneapolis, Minn. 

 (Grant); and Vermilion, S. Dak. (Agersborg). In the west the 

 species seems to be absent as a breeder from the western part of the 

 plains and the whole of the middle and northern Rocky Mountains. 

 The breeding range extends westward to about the ninety-ninth 

 merdian, except in the Rio Grande Valley, up which the species 

 ranges to the Rio Conchas (J. W. Audubon). The birds have wan- 

 dered north in summer to Prospect, Nova Scotia (Downs), and on 

 April 15, 1881, after a storm, they were actually common at West- 

 port, Nova Scotia (Chamberlain). They have also been seen north 

 to Ottawa, Ontario (White) ; Neebish Island, Mich. (Boies) ; Fort 

 Sisseton, S. Dak (McChesney) ; and west to Loveland, Colo., July 

 23, 1895 (Preble) ; Rinconada, N. Mex. (Surber) ; and Pecos City, 

 Tex. (Donald). 



The breeding range extends south to include the whole of Florida 

 and the Gulf States, eastern Texas, the eastern coast of Mexico, the 

 whole of southern Mexico, Yucatan, and south to Duenas, Guate- 

 mala (Salvin and Sclater), and east to Ceiba, Honduras (Bangs). 

 The species breeds also on the west coast of Mexico north to Tepic 

 (Nelson and Goldman). 



Winter range. The green heron winters throughout its range in 

 Mexico and Central America, but no migrating birds from the United 

 States seem to pass any farther south in winter than the region in- 

 habited by the species in summer. Not even in Cuba or the Ba- 

 hamas has the form of the green heron breeding in Florida and the 

 eastern United States been as yet detected. Since the species is very 

 rare in winter in southern Florida and southern Texas and is absent 

 at this season from the rest of the Gulf States, it follows that nearly 

 all of the tens of thousands of green herons that breed in the eastern 

 United States must reach a winter home in Yucatan and southward 

 by a direct flight across the Gulf of Mexico. The species has been 

 noted in winter north to Gainesville, Fla. (Chapman) ; Sarasota 

 Bay, Fla. (Bryant) ; Capers Island, S. C. (Wayne) ; and Browns- 

 ville, Tex. (Merrill). 



