Green Heron 87 
Green Heron. Butorides virescens. 
A.O.U. Checklist no 201—Colorado record—Cooke 09, p. 314. 
Description.—Crown, with a long, soft crest, and lengthened, narrow 
feathers of the back lustrous green; wing-quills and tail dusky 
greenish with a narrow white edge to the wing ; coverts green with 
tawny edgings; neck rich purplish-chestnut with the throat-line 
variegated dusky and white; below mostly brownish-ash with white 
on the belly ; iris and eyelids bright yellow, bill greenish-black, feet 
dull yellowish-green. Length 12; wing 7-0; tail 2-5; culmen 2.45; 
tarsus 2-05. 
Distribution. Temperate North America, from Oregon and Ontario 
south thorough the West Indies and Central America as far as Brazil. 
Though not uncommon in Kansas, this little Heron has only 
recently been met with in Colorado. Edward A. Preble of the 
Biological Survey took one at Loveland, July 23rd, 1895. It has 
probably been overlooked and should not be really rare. 
Genus NYCTICORAX. 
Birds of medium size, wing 12—13, with a short neck, stout and 
somewhat compressed bill; the culmen, tarsus and middle toe with 
claw, all being approximately equal; tail short, of twelve feathers ; 
tibio-tarsus feathered except for about half an inch; no elongated or 
decomposed plumes except those on the occiput. 
A cosmopolitan genus with eight or nine species ; only one in North 
America. 
Black-crowned Night Heron. 
Nycticorax nycticorax nevius. 
A.0.U. Checklist no 202—Colorado Records—H. G. Smith 87, p. 285 ; 
96, p. 65 5 08, p. 185; Morrison 89, p. 166 ; Cooke 94, p. 183; 97, pp. 19, 
61, 198 ; Dille 03, p. 74 ; Henderson 03, p. 234; 09, p. 227; Markman, 
07, p. 155 ; Rockwell 08, p. 159, 10, p. 113. 
Description. Adult—Crown and nape, centre of back and scapulars 
glossy greenish-black ; rest of the upper-parts pale lavender-grey ; 
below, including the forehead, sides of the face and neck, white ; two 
or three long filimentous plumes, generally white, from the occiput ; 
iris red, bill black, legs yellow. Length 26-0; wing 12-5; tail 4-75; 
culmen, 3-15; tarsus 3-20. 
The female is smaller—wing 11-5; after the breeding season the 
occipital plumes are lost. The young birds are greyish-brown, with 
paler edges to some of the feathers, and spotted conspicuously with 
white ; the crown darker, the under-parts paler, streaked with dusky 
and buffy. 
