GREEN HERON. 
49 
rican species has, invariably, twelve. The intestines 
measured live feet six inches in length, and were 
very little thicker than a common knitting needle ; the 
stomach is usually filled with fish or frogs. 
This bird, when fat, is considered by many to be 
excellent eating. 
210 . AEDEA VIEESCEjYS, LINN. AND WILSON. — GREEN HERON. 
WILSON, PLATE LXI. FIG. I. EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. 
This common and familiar species owes little to the 
liberality of public opinion, whose prejudices have 
stigmatized it with a very vulgar and indelicate nick- 
name ; and treat it, on all occasions, 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 
Pennsylvania 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, require 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. He 
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 
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