522 GREEN HERON. 
GREEN HERON.— ARDEA VIRESCENS.—Fic. 244. 
Arct. Zool. No. 349, 350.— Catesby, i. p. 80.—Le Creoier vert, Buff. vii. p. 
404, — Lath. Syn. iii. p. 68.— Peale’s Museum, No. 3797. 
ARDEA VIRESCENS. — Linnxvs.* 
Ardea virescens, Bonap. Synop. p. 307.— Wagl. Syst. Av. No. 36, 
Tus common and familiar species owes little to the liberality of 
public opinion, whose prejudices have stigmatized it with a very vul- 
gar 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 fares 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 dex- 
terity. Frogs and small fish are his principal game, whose caution 
and facility of escape require nice address and rapidity of attack. 
When on the look-out 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 larve, par- 
ticularly those of the dragon-fly, which lurk in the mud, with equal 
adroitness.. But the capturing of frogs requires much nicer manage- 
ment. 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 
* There are two or three beautiful little Herons confounded under this species, 
in the same manner from their near alliance, as the Little Bittern of Europe has 
been with A. exilis and pusilla. They are all, however, to be distinguished when 
compared together, or when attention is given to the markings. The nearest ally 
to A. virescens is the East Indian A. scapularis ; the upper parts of both are nearly 
similar, but the neck and under parts differ in being of a deep vinous chestnut in 
the one, and rich ash gray in the other. In Wilson’s Plate, the chestnut color is 
not represented of a deep enough tint, and too much white is shown on the fore 
art. 
, In a specimen which I have lately reccived from South Carolina, the color of 
the neck is very deep and rich, almost approaching to that of port wine; the 
lengthened feathers of the back are remarkably long, and show well the white 
shafts which ought to be so conspicuous in both species. he confusion in the 
greater part of the synonymes must have arisen by the specimens from both ecun- 
tries being indiscriminately compared and described. — Ep. 
