How the Green Heron Wandered 205 



zebra in order to be sure that it was a zebra, or the hide of 

 an elephant to prove that it was an elephant. When the 

 processed pictures were returned I mounted the best and 

 forwarded them to the American Museum of Natural History 

 in New York, with the request that they identify the bird. 

 The short note mentioned only the place where the pictures 

 were taken. The reply stated that the bird was a green heron. 

 The answer went as far as I had hoped and expected. I knew 

 that the matter of subspecies could be determined only in 

 the laboratory. 



The letter satisfied me that proper photographs in color 

 were of considerable value in identification. The report of 

 the presence of the green heron was accepted unquestion- 

 ably, especially when two records, made earlier, were pub- 

 lished. Stanley G. Jewett, a nationally known expert, had 

 seen a green heron in the southwestern portion of the state, 

 and Hubert C. Hall had taken an Anthony green heron in 

 Pacific County, Washington, on the day before the manager 

 had told me of the arrival of the bird in our marsh. So every- 

 body was satisfied: the precisionists had a skin to prove that 

 its former occupant had really flown into the state, the re- 

 port of the museum established the fact that our bird was a 

 green heron, and more than that the record of the almost 

 simultaneous appearance of these three birds suggested that 

 significant changes might be taking place. 



From a news standpoint, had the matter ended there it 

 would have furnished only an item which might compare in 

 importance to city news, such as the visit of the crown prince 

 of Norway, an Australian tennis champion, or some famous 

 explorer or statesman. But my friends and I were in an ex- 

 cellent position to watch the arrival and departure of marsh 

 guests and to witness the remarkable change in the status 

 of the green heron in our territory. 



We did not, as the thorough Germans might have done, 

 form a society for the observance of green herons, but we 



