GREEN HERON. 
3 
particularly pleasing to the bird, and also very interesting, 
from the continual exercise of cunning and ingenuity neces- 
sary 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 absurdity of those 
writers, who declare, that the lives of this whole class of birds 
are rendered miserable by toil and hunger ; their very appear- 
ance, according to Buffon, presenting the image of suffering, 
anxiety, and indigence.* 
When alarmed, the green bittern rises with a hollow gut- 
tural 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 w^alks along the fence, or 
stands gazing at you with outstretched neck, he has the fre- 
quent 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 ; 
sometimes in single pairs, in swampy woods ; often in compa- 
nies ; 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 constructed wholly of small sticks, lined with 
finer twigs, and is of considerable size, though loosely put to- 
gether. The female lays four eggs, of the common oblong 
form, and of a pale light blue colour. 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 
* Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux, tome xxii. p. 343. 
