SHORE AND MARSH BIRDS. Green Heron 



Green Heron: Ardea virescens. 



Poke. 



PLATE XII. FIG. 8. 



Length : 16-18 inches. 



Male and Female : Head with lengthened crest. Above dark glossy 

 green, sometimes with an iridescence. Edging of wing coverts 

 reddish. Neck a rich shade of chestnut, with a purplish wash, 

 white streak at the throat, and under parts whitish, shading to 

 ash below. Legs and bill yellowish. 



Season : Common summer resident. 



Breeds : Through its North American range. 



Nest : Of sticks in a tree, seldom high up. 



Eggs : 3-6, pale green. 



Range : Canada and Oregon, southward to northern South America 

 and the West Indies ; rare in the arid interior. 



That this Heron is the commonest and best known of its 

 family, is attested by the numerous local names it bears. 

 "Fly-up-the-creek," "Chalk-line," and "Chuckle-head" being 

 a few of the list to which every small boy feels it his duty 

 to add one, usually of a very uncomplimentary nature. 



When seen in the breeding-season, at short range, the 

 plumage of these Herons is very lustrous and beautiful, but 

 when on the wing the iridescence of the feathers is invisible 

 and the receding head, accentuated by the long crest, and 

 the poking bill give the birds an idiotic expression. 



In many places they breed in communities called Heron- 

 ries ; but here usually in single pairs, in the wooded strip 

 that runs from the marsh lane to the eastward of Wakeman's 

 Island. The Green Heron is a great believer in ventilation, 

 and its nest always reminds me of the boy's definition of a 

 sieve, which he said was " a sort of round thing made mostly 

 of holes." The sticks of the nest are so few and far be- 

 tween that one would imagine the current of air passing 

 between would prevent the eggs from hatching. I saw a 

 nest last spring that had listed so that one of the eggs lay 

 broken on the ground, and there is a very good story told 

 about a nest that was such a shaky concern that every time 

 the old birds jarred it a stick fell off, and the structure grew 



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