GREEN HERON. 523 
heard or felt ; and, when arrived within reach, stands fixed, and bend- 
ing forwards, until the first glimpse of the frog’s head makes its ap- 
pearance, when, with a stroke instantaneous as lightning, he seizes it: 
in his bill, beats it to death, and feasts on it at his leisure. 
This mode of life, requiring little fatigue where game is so plenty, 
as is generally the case in all our marshes, must be particularly pleas- 
ing to the bird, and also very interesting, from the continual exercise 
of cunning and ingenuity necessary to circumvent its prey. Some of 
the naturalists of Europe, however, in their superior wisdom, think 
very differently; and one can scarcely refrain from smiling at the ab- 
surdity of those writers, who declare that the lives of this whole 
class of birds are rendered miserable by toil and hunger; their very 
appearance, according to Buffon, presenting the image of suffering, 
anxiety, and indigence.* 
When alarmed, the Green Bittern rises with a hollow, guttural 
scream; does not fly far, but usually alights on some old stump, tree, 
or fence adjoining, and looks about with extended neck; though, 
sometimes, this is drawn in so, that his head seems to rest on his 
breast. As he walks along the fence, or stands gazing at you with 
out-stretched neck, he has the frequent habit of jetting the tail. He 
sometimes flies high, with doubled neck, and legs extended behind, 
flapping the wings smartly, and travelling with great expedition, He 
is the least shy of all our Herons; and, perhaps, the most numerous 
and generally dispersed, being found far in the interior, as well as 
along our salt marshes, and every where about the muddy shores of 
our mill-ponds, creeks, and large rivers. 
The Green Bittern begins to build about the 20th of April; some- 
times in single pairs, in swampy woods; often in companies; and not 
unfrequently in a kind of association with the Qua-Birds, or Night 
Herons. The nest is fixed among the branches of the trees; is con- 
structed wholly of small sticks, lined with finer twigs, and is of con- 
siderable size, though loosely put together. The female lays four 
eggs, of the common oblong form, and of a pale, Jight blue color. 
The young do not leave the nest until able to fly; and, for the first 
season at least, are destitute of the long-pointed plumage on the 
back ; the lower parts are also lighter, and the white on the throat 
broader. During the whole summer, and until late in autumn, these 
birds are seen in our meadows and marshes, but never remain during 
winter in any part of the United States. 
The Green Bittern is eighteen inches long, and twenty-five inches 
in extent; bill, black, lighter below, and yellow at the base; chin, 
and nagrow streak down the throat, yellowish white ; neck, dark vina- 
ceous red; back, covered with very long, tapering, pointed feathers, 
of a hoary green, shafted with white, on a dark green ground; the 
hind part of the neck is destitute of plumage, that it may be the more 
conveniently drawn in over the breast, but is covered with the long 
feathers of the throat and sides of the neck, that enclose it behind ; 
wings and tail, dark glossy green, tipped and bordered with yellowish 
white ; legs and’ feet, yellow, tinged before with green, the skin of 
these thick and movable ; belly, ashy brown ; irides, bright orange 
* Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux, tome xxii. p. 343. 
