276 GREEN HERON. 
siderable distance, they draw it in like all other species of the tribe, 
and advance with regular and firm movements of their wings. When 
alighting to rest, they come down with such force, that their passage 
causes a rustling sound like that produced by birds of prey when poun- 
cing on their quarry, and on perching they stretch up their neck and 
jerk their tail repeatedly for some time, as they are also wont to do 
on any other occasion’ when alarmed. 
The Green Herons feed all day long, but, as I think, rarely at 
night. Their food consists of frogs, fishes, snails, tadpoles, water li- 
zards, crabs, and small quadrupeds, all of which they procure without 
much exertion, they being abundant in the places to which they usu- 
ally resort. Their gait is light but firm. During the love-season they 
exhibit many curious gestures, erecting all the feathers of their neck, 
swelling their throat, and uttering a rough guttural note like qua, qua, 
several times repeated by the male as he struts before the female. This 
note is also usually emitted when they are started, but when fairly on 
wing they proceed in silence. The flesh of this species affords tolerable 
eating, and Green Herons are not unfrequently seen in the markets of 
our Southern cities, especially of New Orleans. 
The young attain their full beauty in the second spring, but con- 
tinue to grow for at least another year. The changes which they ex- 
hibit, although by no means so remarkable as those of Ardea rufescens 
and A. cwrulea, have proved sufficient to cause mistakes among authors 
who had nothing but skins on which to found their decisions. I have 
given figures of an adult in full plumage, and of an immature bird, to 
enable you to judge how carefully Nature ought to be studied to enable 
you to keep free of mistakes. 
ArpeEa virEscens, Linn. Syst. Nat. vol i. p. 238.—Lath. Ind. Ornith. vol. 1. p. 684. 
—Ch. Bonaparte, Synopsis of Birds of United States, p. 307. 
GREEN Heron, ARDEA virESCENS, Wils. Amer. Ornith. vol. viii. p. 97, pl. 61, 
fig. 1.—WNuttall, Manual, vol. ii. p. 63. 
Adult Male. Plate CCCXXXIII. Fig. 1. 
Bill longer than the head, straight, rather slender, tapering to a 
very acute point, higher than broad at the base, compressed towards 
the end. Upper mandible with its dorsal line very slightly arched, the 
