2 
GREEN HERON. 
very vulgar and indelicate nickname, and treat it on all occa- 
sions as worthless and contemptible. Yet few birds are more 
independent of man than this ; for it fares best, and is always 
most numerous, where cultivation is least known or attended 
to ; its favourite residence being the watery solitudes of 
swamps, pools, and morasses, where millions of frogs and 
lizards “ tune their nocturnal notes” in full chorus, undisturbed 
by the lords of creation. 
The green bittern makes its first appearance in Pennsylva- 
nia early in April, soon after the marshes are completely 
thawed. There, among the stagnant ditches with which they 
are intersected, and amidst the bogs and quagmires, he hunts 
with great cunning and dexterity. Frogs and small fish are 
his principal game, whose caution, and facility of escape, re- 
quire nice address, and rapidity of attack. When on the look- 
out for small fish, he stands in the water, by the side of the 
ditch, silent and motionless as a statue ; his neck drawn in 
over his breast, ready for action. The instant a fry or minnow 
comes within the range of his bill, by a stroke, quick and sure 
as that of the rattlesnake, he seizes his prey, and swallows it 
in an instant. Fie searches for small crabs, and for the various 
worms and larvae, particularly those of the dragon-fly, which 
lurk in the mud, with equal adroitness. But the capturing of 
frogs requires much nicer management. These wary reptiles 
shrink into the mire on the least alarm, and do not raise up 
their heads again to the surface without the most cautious cir- 
cumspection. The bittern, fixing his penetrating eye on the 
spot where they disappeared, approaches with slow stealing 
step, laying his feet so gently and silently on the ground, as 
not to be heard or felt ; and, when arrived within reach, stands 
fixed, and bending forwards, until the first glimpse of the 
frog’s head makes its appearance, when, with a stroke instant- 
aneous 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 
