

SPECIES 5. tfRDEA riRESCENS. 



GREEN HERON. 

 [Plate LXL Fig. 1.] 



rfrct. Zovl. No. 349. -CATESBY, i, 80. Le Crabier vert, BUFF. 

 vn, 404. LATH. 8yn. v. 3, p. 68, No. 30. PEALE'S Museum, 

 No. 3797. 



THIS common and familiar species owes little to the liberality 

 of public opinion, whose prejudices have stigmatized it with a 

 very vulgar and indelicate nickname; and treat it on all occasions 

 as worthless and contemptible. Yet few birds are more indepen- 

 dent of man than this; for it fares best, and is always most nu- 

 merous, where cultivation is least known or attended to ; its fa- 

 vourite residence being the watery solitudes of swamps, pools 

 and morasses, where millions of frogs and lizards " tune their 

 nocturnal notes" in full chorus, undisturbed by the lords of 

 creation. 



The Green Bittern makes its first appearance in Pennsylvania 

 early in April, soon after the marshes are completely thawed. 

 There, among the stagnant ditches with which they are intersec- 

 ted, and amidst the bogs and quagmires, he hunts with great cun- 

 ning and dexterity. Frogs and small fish are his principal game, 

 whose caution, and facility of escape, require nice address, and 

 rapidity of attack. When on the look-out for small fish, he stands 

 in the water, by the side of the ditch, silent and motionless as a 

 statue; his neck drawn in over his breast, ready for action. The 

 instant a fry or minnow comes within the range of his bill, by 

 a stroke quick and sure as that of the rattle-snake, he seizes his 

 prey, and swallows it in an instant. He searches for small crabs, 

 and for the various worms and larva?, particularly those of the 

 dragon-fly, which lurk in the mud, with equal adroitness. But 

 the capturing of frogs requires much nicer management. These 



