Birds of Oregon and Washington 149 



THE GREEN HERON. 



Length, 15.5 to 22.5. 



This is the smallest, as the Great Blue Heron 

 is the largest, of the Heron family. Unlike the 

 latter, however, he does not nest in flocks but in 

 privacy ; the home is built in bushes, or upon 

 limbs of trees, overhanging the water, and is 

 made of sticks, as is usually the case with his 

 kind. The Green Heron seems to prefer the 

 woods to marshes. It is widely distributed, 

 being found everywhere in temperate North 

 America, as well as in the West Indies and some 

 parts of South America. Its call is a rather 

 sweet whistle. Its cry, when frightened, is a 

 sort of quawk. 



PARTICULAR DESCRIPTION. Head, glossy green on 

 top ; rest of head and great part of neck, reddish-brown, 

 " rich chestnut, varying in tone from cinnamon to ma- 

 roon" (Ridgway) ; wings, varying from slate-color and 

 greenish in the scapulars, " with whitish shafts to bottle- 

 green in the wing-coverts, bordered with whitish or buff ; 

 lower parts, plain grayish." 



Summer resident. 



