114 BIRDS OF ONTARIO. 



On the east coast, it is found breeding as far north as Long 

 Island, and in the interior it occurs in Oregon, but the true home of 

 these httle herons is farther south. In all suitable places through- 

 out South and Central America, the West Indies and Mexico, they 

 breed in colonies in immense numbers, though I grieve to say that of 

 late years they have been almost exterminated by plume hunters. 



Subgenus BUTORIDES Blyth. 

 ARDEA VIRESCENS Linn. 



76. Green Heron. (201) 



Adult: — In the breeding season with the crown, long soft occipital crest, 

 and lengthened narrow feathers of the back, lustrous dark green, sometimes 

 with a bronzy iridescence, and on the back often with a glaucous cast; wing 

 coverts, green, with conspicuous tawny edgings; neck, purplish-chestnut, the 

 throat-line variegated with dusky or whitish ; under parts, mostly dark brown- 

 ish-ash, belly variegated with white; quills and tail, greenish-dusky, with a 

 glaucous shade, edge of the wing white; some of the quills, usually white- 

 tipped ; bill, greenish-black, much of the under mandible, yellow ; lores and iris, 

 yellow ; legs, greenish-yellow ; lower neck, with lengthened feathers in front, a 

 bare space behind. Young: — With the head less crested, the back without 

 long plumes, but glossy greenish ; neck, merely reddish-brown, and whole under 

 parts, white, variegated with tawny and dark brown. Length, 16-18; wing, 

 about, 7 ; bill, 24 ; tarsus, 2 ; middle toe and claw, about the same ; tibia, bare, 

 I or less. 



Hab. — Canada and Oregon, southward to northern South America and West 

 Indies ; rare or absent in the Middle Provinces. 



Nest, composed of twigs, placed in a bush or low tree in a swamp or hy the 

 bank of a stream. 



Eggs, three to six, pale greenish-blue. 



This handsome little Heron finds its northern limit along the 

 southern border of Ontario. According to Dr. Macallum, it breeds 

 regularly on the banks of the Grand River, near Dunnville, and has 

 also been observed, occasionally, near Hamilton and at the St. Clair 

 Flats. Like the others of its class, the Green Heron feeds mostly at 

 night, and is seldom seen abroad by day, except by those who have 

 occasion to invade its marshy haunts. On this account it may be 

 more numerous than it is supposed to be. It arrives about the end 

 of April, and leaves for the south again in September. 



In the North- West it has been taken in the Assiniboine, and is 

 said to breed in the sloughs around Turtle Mounta,in, but is nowhere 

 common. 



