BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 63 



state. Only live, of over seventy, naturalists and collectors, who have 

 kindly sent me lists of birds found in the different counties of our com- 

 monwealth, seems to have observed this species. Their reports are sub- 

 stantially as follows : Dr. John W. Detwiller, Bethlehem, straggler in 

 Northampton county ; Dr. W. Yan Fleet, Eenovo, straggler in Clinton 

 county ; D. Frank Keller, Beading, accidental visitor in Berks county. 

 Prof. H. Justin Roddy, in a letter sent to me from Landisburg, July 15, 

 1889, says : "Ardea caerulea is a rare breeder (Perry county). Found a 

 set of eggs June 20, 1885, near the base of Mt. Dempsey." 



Ardea virescens LINN. 



Green Heron; Shite-poke; Chalk-line; Ply-up-the-creek. 



DESCRIPTION (Plate 55). 



Length about 18 inches ; expanse about 26 ; bill rather stout, about two and a-half 

 inches long, and about half an inch longer than tarsus. 



Adult, in summer. Top of head, and lengthened crest glossy green ; sides of 

 head, and neck, except a whitish and dusky streak in front, bright chestnut or 

 maroon ; wing coverts and upper surface of wings and tail feathers glossy green, 

 wing coverts edged with brownish and whitish ; inner primaries with narrow white 

 tips, long scapular plumes bluish-white glossed with green, lower parts grayish, 

 darkest on sides. Bill greenish-black, except mandible on lower surface, also lores 

 and eyes yellow ; legs greenish yellow. 



Young. Head less crested and dull greenish-black, back and upper parts gener- 

 ally greenish ; long scapular plumes absent ; wing-coverts much more broadly bor- 

 dered, brown and whitish than adult ; many of larger wing feathers have showy 

 white tips ; chin, throat and front neck, whitish with dusky streaks ; rest of and 

 sides of head rather pale reddish-brown ; lower parts, whitish with dusky stripes ; 

 edge of wing as in adult, white ; colour of eyes, legs and bill very similar to old bird. 



Habitat. Canada and Oregon, southward to northern South America and the West 

 Indies ; rare or absent in the middle province. 



The Green Heron is known by a variety of local names, some of which 

 are much more expressive than elegant. This bird, the most common 

 and abundant of all our herons, is found throughout the state, frequent- 

 ing rivers, streams and ponds. It arrives in this section occasionally as 

 early as the first week in April, from the southern states, where it re- 

 sides when the chilling blasts of winter have frozen over our streams 

 and marshes. This species sometimes breeds in small companies ; gen- 

 erally, however, but two or three pairs are found nesting together. The 

 nests, built of sticks and twigs, are placed in low bushes or small trees 

 adjacent to a stream or pond. The nests frequently are built in apple 

 orchards. Indeed, the largest number of nests that I ever found in one 

 locality was in an apple orchard along the Brandywine, where for several 

 years some twenty-five or thirty of these birds annually resorted. While 

 it is true that I have found these herons breeding in small numbers with 

 the Night and Great Blue Herons in Pennsylvania, and also in Florida 

 in company with the Little Blue, Louisiana and Snowy Herons, and 

 even sometimes in the colonies of Water Turkeys and Cormorants, I 



