

How the Green Heron Wandered 209 



the situation in the Puget Sound area. I had now seen green 

 herons while faltboating on both the Snoqualmie and Sam- 

 mamish rivers. A friend of mine had collected a specimen 

 fifty miles north of Seattle. These, together with those taken 

 near Tacoma, and the additional ones seen in the marsh in- 

 dicated that there were now many more birds in the state 

 than had been realized. One of the birds taken near Tacoma 

 proved to be in breeding condition when dissected. This 

 justified the opinion that the birds were nesting somewhere 

 nearby. We could now believe that the appearance of these 

 birds was not due to pseudomigration, but was a part of a 

 definite movement into Washington. This belief was strength- 

 ened by the presence in the swamp of twelve birds in one 

 day. 



The next spring four green herons appeared early in the 

 marsh. We saw them through May and June but could not 

 locate a nest. Then on June 18, while paddling through a 

 canal, I saw two strange birds sitting side by side on a willow 

 branch, their bodies silhouetted against the sky, and the 

 light shining through their crowns like a halo. I had not 

 found the nest, but here were two green herons, so young 

 that it was certain that they had been born in the marsh. 

 Their tails were stubby, their wing feathers short, their bills 

 light-colored, their breasts striped with tan on either side. 

 The identification was easy because my six-power glasses 

 brought out every detail. They half fell, half climbed, down 

 from the branches and disappeared. I returned now and 

 then for two hours, each time seeing them back on a branch 

 and each time watching them slip down again. And through- 

 out the week I saw them in almost the same place. 



It had been just a few days less than ten years since the 

 canoehouse manager had directed my attention to the first 

 green heron in the marsh. My friends and I had watched its 

 invasion of the territory, had heard of its increase in other 

 locations in the state, and had welcomed its visits to our 



