106 REPORT OF NEW JERSEY STATE MUSEUM. 



Adult birds in the blue plumage are very rare in New Jersey. 

 There is one specimen in the Philadelphia Academy collection without 

 detailed data, and several mentioned by Evans. In 1902 a remarkable 

 flight of these two species occurred, which has been described by Wm. 

 B. Evans, 1 and Mr. S. N. Rhoads saw a similar assemblage below 

 Camden. 2 



Along the coast of Cape May Mr. Hand tells me that White Herons 

 occur regularly in late summer, and at Tuckerton at least a few are 

 reported nearly every year. Farther north in the State Mr. C. C. 

 Owen 8 records two shot at Maplewood July 27th, 1897, and there have 

 been a number of records in the vicinity of Point Pleasant. 4 



201 Butorides virescens (Linnaeus). 

 Green Heron, Fly-up-the-creek, Poke. 



Adults. Length, 15.50-22.50. Wing, 6.50-8. Above, glossy green; back, 

 more or less bluish-gray ; wing-coverts edged with whitish ; head and neck, for 

 the most part, chestnut; top of head, glossy black, tinged with green; throat, 

 pale buff, and a narrow stripe of the same down the fore neck ; abdomen, gray, 

 tinged with buff. 



Young in first summer and autumn. Similar, but no gray above, the neck 

 and under parts streaked with black. 



Nest a loose structure of sticks in a low tree ; eggs, four to five, pale greenish- 

 blue, 1.45 x 1.10. 



Common summer resident throughout the State, nesting both singly 

 and in colonies. Formerly nested along the coast islands, but now 

 nearly exterminated there. Occurs April to October 5th. 



Mr. W. W. Justice, Jr., saw one at Salem November 23d, 1898, 

 which is our latest record. 



This is the best-known and most universally distributed of our 

 Herons, and no doubt its abundance is due to the fact that it has to a 

 great extent abandoned the habit of nesting in communities. Had it 



1 Cassinia, 1902, p. 15. 



2 Abst. Proc. D. V. O. C., III., p. 12. 



3 Auk, 1898, p. 51. 



* T. B. A., Forest and Stream, 1884, February 14th, p. 44 ; Stone, Birds of 

 E. Pa. and N. J. ; Evans, Cassinia, 1902, p. 15. 



