OF VIRGINIA 47 
GENUS BUTORIDES. 
[201]. Butorides virescens virescens (Linnaeus). 
Green Heron. 
[Scow. Fly-Up-the-Creek. Little Crane. Scout]. 
Raner.—Eastern North America. Breeds from 
southern South Dakota, northern Wisconsin, southern 
Ontario, southern Quebee, and Nova Scotia south to the 
West Indies; winters from Florida and the West Indies. 
southward, and rarely in southeastern United States; 
casual in Colorado. 
This heron, commonly called “Scow,” remains through 
the milder winters with us, and during the breeding season 
every small marsh, pond, or brackish stream, affords a 
fishing preserve for one or more pair. On the islands 
along the coast they are still quite numerous, though not 
as much so as formerly, when the cedars, scrub pines and 
other foliage afforded abundant nesting sites, and large 
colonies were common. There are probably more eges of 
this species, and the Great Blue Heron, destroyed by 
crows, both Common and Fish Crows, than are hatched by 
the birds themselves. I have been on the ground under- 
neath these rookeries when the eggshells of these birds, 
dropped by the crows after sucking the contents, literally 
made the ground look blue. The nest is a well constructed 
saucer-shaped platform of small sticks and twigs, and 
although the eggs can generally be seen through the nest 
from below, the construction is such that it holds its con- 
tents during the severe wind and thunder storms that sweep 
the rookeries generally when the breeding season is at its 
height. While the birds and eggs are sometimes eaten by 
