GREEN HERON". * 107 
the branches, clinging to them with their feet, so as not to be easily 
drawn off. 
After the spring migration is over, the flight of this species is rather 
feeble, and when they are passing from one spot to another, they frequently 
use a stronger flap of their wings at intervals. On such occasions, they 
scarcely contract their neck ; but when travelling to a considerable distance, 
they draw it in like all other species of the tribe, and advance with regular 
and firm movements of their wings. When alighting to rest, they come 
down with such force, that their passage causes a rustling sound like that 
produced by birds of prey when pouncing on their quarry, and on perching 
they stretch up their neck and jerk their tail repeatedly for some time, as 
they are also wont to do on any other occasion when alarmed. 
The Green Herons feed all day long, but, as I think, rarely at night. 
Their food consists of frogs, fishes, snails, tadpoles, water-lizards, crabs, and 
small quadrupeds, all of which they procure without much exertion, they 
being abundant in the places to which they usually resort. Their gait is light, 
but firm. During the love-season they exhibit many curious gestures, 
erecting all the feathers of their neck, swelling their throat, and uttering a- 
rough guttural note like qua, qua, several times repeated by the male as he 
struts before the female. This note is also usually emitted when they are 
started, but when fairly on wing they proceed in silence. The flesh of this 
species affords tolerable eating, and Green Herons are not unfrequently seen 
in the markets of our southern cities, especially of New Orleans. 
The young attain their full beauty in the second spring, but continue to 
grow for at least another year. The changes which they exhibit, although 
by no means so remarkable as those of Ardea rufescens and A. ccerulea, 
have proved sufficient to cause mistakes among authors who had nothing but 
skins on which to found their decisions. I have given figures of an adult in 
full plumage, and of an immature bird, to enable you to judge how carefully 
Nature ought to be studied to enable you to keep free of mistakes. 
Green Heron, Ardea virescens, Wils. Amer. Orn., vol. viii. p. 97. 
Ardea virescens, Bonap. Syn., p. 307. 
Green Heron, Nutt. Man., vol. ii. p. 63. 
Green Heron, Ardea virescens , Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. iv. p. 274. 
Male, 17f, 27. Female, 17, 25. 
Resident in the Floridas and along the Gulf of Mexico to Texas. In 
spring and summer disperses over the whole country as far as Maine, and 
up the Missouri. Returns southward at the approach of winter. Very 
common. 
