Species V. ARDEA riRESOHNS. 



GREEN HERON. 



[Plate LXI. Fig. 1.] 



Arct. Zool. No. 349.— Catesbt, i., 80. — Le Crabier vert, Buff, til, 404. — Lath, 



8yn. III., p. 68, No. 30. 



This common atid familiar species owes little to the liberality of 

 public opinion, whose prejudices have stigmatized it with a very vulgar 

 and indelicate nickname ; and treat it on all occasions as worthless and 

 contemptible. Yet few birds are more independent of man than this ; 

 for it faires best, and is always most numerous, where cultivation is least 

 known or attended to ; its favorite residence being the watery solitudes 

 of^ swamps, pools and morasses, where millions of frogs and lizards 

 " tune their nocturnal notes" in full chorus, undisturbed by the lords of 

 creation. 



The Green Bittern makes its first appearance in Pennsylvania early 

 in April, soon after the marshes are completely thawed. There, among 

 the stagnant ditches with which they are intersected, and amidst the 

 bogs and quagmires, he hunts with great cunning and dexterity. Frogs 

 and small fish are his principal game, whose caution, and facility of 

 escape, require nice address, and rapidity of attack. When on the 

 lookout for small fish, he stands in the water, by the side of the ditch, 

 silent and motionless as a statue ; his neck drawn in over his breast, 

 ready for action. The instant a fry or minnow comes within the range 

 of his bill, by a stroke quick and sure as that of the rattlesnake, he 

 seizes his prey, and swallows it in an instant. He searches for small 

 crabs, and for the various worms and larvae, particularly those of the 

 dragon-fly, which lurk in the mud, with equal adroitness. But the cap- 

 turing of frogs requires much nicer management. These wary reptiles 

 shrink into the mire on the least alarm, and do not raise up their heads 

 again to the surface without the most cautious circumspection. The 

 Bittern, fixing his penetrating eye on the spot where they disappeared, 

 approaches with slow stealing step, laying his feet so gently and silently 

 on the ground as not to be heard or felt ; and when arrived within reach 

 stands fixed, and bending forwards, until the first glimpse of the frog's 

 head makes its appearance, when, with a stroke instantaneous as light- 

 ning, he seizes it in his bill, beats it to death, and feasts on it at his 



leisure. 



(301) 



