HERONS 



(201) Butorides virescens vires- 

 cens 



(Linn.) (Lat., bittern, Gr., a resemblance; 

 Lat., becoming green). 



GREEN HERON. Smallest of 

 our herons. Ad. — Shown in full 

 plumage, it requiring several years 

 to attain the glaucous-blue color 

 of the back feathers. Im. — Head 

 less crested; back greenish-black, 

 with no plumes; neck dull brownish. 

 L., 17.00; W., 7.00; Tar., 2.00; 

 B., 2.50. Nesl — Of sticks, in low 

 trees or bushes, usually in colonies 

 in the south and singly in northern 

 states; three to five pale bluish- 

 green eggs, 1.4s X 1. 10. 



Range — Eastern N. A. Breeds 

 from N. S., Quebec, Wis. and S. Dak. 

 southward. Winters from the West 

 Indies southward. 



young ''Little Blues" often appear in the New England 

 States during fall. 



GREEN HERONS are quite evenly distributed through- 

 out eastern United States. Unlike those species confined 

 to the Southern States, they are not to any extent gregarious. 

 We are more apt to find single pairs, or, at the most, two or 

 three, living along sluggish brooks or about ponds or lakes. 

 One of its many vernacular names, " Fly-up-the-Creek, " 

 was in all probability first applied to this species by rural 

 fishermen before whose advance they literally fly up the creek, 

 starting such flight with their characteristic single shriek. 



Their nests are not necessarily located near their feeding 

 grounds and even may be remote from water. Every year 

 the same pair of birds returns to a certain small clump of 

 pines and constructs a new nest on the lower outer branches. 

 A brook happens to flow within a hundred yards of this 

 particular place, but I have never seen either bird frequent 

 it; their regular feeding place is a pond a half mile away. 

 So shabbily is the flat platform of sticks put together that 



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