202 Union Bay 



later found was quite characteristic. It dropped a couple of 

 feet lower so that its position against the sky was lost and 

 its body made only a rough outline among the branches. I 

 waited for it to climb again but without success. I soon 

 learned that these downward retreats were never reversed 

 by a short climb, but were usually terminated by flight. 



I recalled some of the names by which the eastern relative 

 was known: shitepoke, little quak, and fly-up-the-creek, the 

 last of which I thought particularly applicable to this west- 

 ern relative, for I followed it as it flew from willow to willow, 

 from top branches to lower ones, and then to other trees 

 where the bird repeated its performance. I succeeded in get- 

 ting a couple of short movie shots which I hoped might 

 establish its identity, but I knew the distances were too great 

 to be satisfactory. Then the bird flew across the marsh and 

 disappeared for the rest of the day. 



That had been my first encounter with the green heron 

 in the Pacific Northwest. I hoped that it would not be my 

 last. On my way home I thought much about the bird and of 

 the probable reasons that had brought it here. I knew that 

 the public in general regards all birds as free to wander 

 wherever wind and food and fancy take them. But the con- 

 trary is true: birds live within definite boundaries, more 

 extensive for some than for others, but all subject to decided 

 limitations. They do not often make a practice of getting out 

 of their range, although annually there are exceptions to the 

 rule. Herons of various kinds occasionally indulge in pseudo- 

 migrations, which are not migrations involving regular jour- 

 neys between their winter and breeding territories, but are 

 simply postbreeding wanderings which follow no definite 

 course. Had such a pseudomigration led this bird to the 

 marsh? If so, where had the summer nesting taken place, 

 and how far had this stranger come in its wandering? I spent 

 the evening in an examination of the available records. 



I learned that there were two races of the green heron on 



