1869.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
289 
Our Small Herons. 
"We present pictures this month of two strik¬ 
ing species—the Green Heron, (fig. 1,) Ardea 
vvrescens , of Linnaeus, now called Buto- 
rides virescens, as named by Bonaparte, 
and (fig. 2) the Least Bittern, formerly 
Ardea, now Ardetta exilis. They are 
both waders and spearmen, taking their 
prey alive by impaling it upon their long, 
sharp bills. The former is familiar to 
every farmer’s boy, and is sometimes 
called “ fly-up-the-creek,” but more 
commonly “ poke,” from its awkward 
flight, and more awkward position 
when standing, especially if its perch is 
not stable. The bird has, however, 
points of great beauty in its plumage, 
in which bright deep green, purplish 
red, brown, and bluish gray are com¬ 
bined. On some parts the colors are 
changeable, like some silk stuffs. The 
crest is permanently green, and erectile, 
the feathers of the back green or bluish 
gray, according to the direction from 
which they are viewed; the neck is 
purplish red, the throat white, with 
dark brown spots; the wings are olive 
green, the feathers being laced with 
white, and the under parts arc dusky 
brown, inclining to ash color. The up¬ 
per part of the bill is black, the lower 
mandible chiefly yellow, and the legs 
are yellow. The Green Heron is com¬ 
mon in summer in all parts of the Unit¬ 
ed States. In winter the scattered ones 
move southward, and remain in the 
Gulf States. It is common on the mar¬ 
gins of stagnant pools and salt marshes, 
and along upland streams. The nests 
arc near the margins of ponds, some¬ 
times low, at other times built in high 
positions. It usually lays four eggs, 
and the young do not gain their full 
plumage before the second season. The 
food of this heron, like most of its con¬ 
geners, is such animals as it can procure by 
"wading along the margins of streams and pools, 
and in marshes; namely, frogs, liekl-mice and 
shrews,insects, fish, 
shell-fish, tadpoles, 
etc. Its habits are 
not so much noc¬ 
turnal as those of 
most other herons, 
but it feeds more or 
less all day, being 
most active about 
dusk. The flesh is 
never eaten at the 
North, so far as we 
are aware, but it is 
esteemed at the 
South,and the birds 
are occasionally 
found with other 
game in the mar¬ 
kets of New Or¬ 
leans and other 
Southern cities. 
Common speci¬ 
mens are about 15 
or 16 inches long. 
The Least Bit¬ 
tern, (fig. 2,) Ardet¬ 
ta exilis of Gray, is 
the smallest of the Herons. (Why it is called 
Bittern it would be difficult to say.) This 
pretty little species is by no means so frequent¬ 
ly met with as the former, except at the South. 
It is a constant resident of Florida, extending 
southward in winter, and northward in sum¬ 
GREEN HERON AND LEAST BITTERN. 
mer, being found from Maine to the head waters 
of the Missouri. Its habits, food, and places of 
resort, are quite similar to those of the Green 
isli black; the sides of the head and back of 
the neck are brownish red, almost a wine color, 
shading into light chestnut. The wing coverts 
are of a similar color, the secondaries tipped 
with chestnut red, and the flight feath¬ 
ers purplish gray. The tail is short 
and rounded ; the wings are also short, 
broad, and rounded. Audubon men¬ 
tions an interesting peculiarity of this 
bird, namely, its ability to narrow its 
body to pass through close spaces. He 
placed two books an inch and a halt 
and afterwards an inch apart, and found 
that, though their bodies measured 2'|» 
inches across,they easily walked through 
the narrowest space. The size of the 
Least Bittern is given as 12 to 13* | 3 
inches, total length from tip of bill to 
tail; measured to the tips of the claws, 
about 16 inches; while the weight is 
from 3 1 L to 4 3 | 4 ounces, the males be¬ 
ing larger, heavier, as well as more 
brilliantly colored, than the females. 
mi The Hammer-head Shark. 
Among the most curious members of 
the very peculiar and interesting family 
of Sharks, none is more singularly 
formed than the Hammer-head, of 
which avc give a picture. Sharks are 
boneless fishes, the place of bone being 
supplied by cartilage, which, in some 
parts of thebody,isstilf and hard. They 
do not breathe through gills like com¬ 
mon fishes having scales, but in the 
place of gills there are holes through 
1 which the water escapes. Although be- 
. longing to a class of fishes, which arc 
hatched from the egg, many sharks 
bring forth their young alive, as does 
this. The mouths of all sharks are 
under the projecting snout, so that to 
bite anything swimming above them 
they must turn over nearly or quite up¬ 
on their backs; this they are able to do 
quickly and easily from their one-sided 
The Hammer-head Shark is common to 
It is, when of full 
more 
tails. 
both Europe and America. 
hammer-head SHARK.— (Zygcena malleus.) 
Heron. The colors are less brilliant, but beau¬ 
tiful ; the crest, back, and tail, are glossy green- 
size, 11 or 12 feet 
long, the body be¬ 
ing of a grayish col¬ 
or above, and whit¬ 
ish below. The head 
is nearly black, flat, 
exceedingly broad 
and truncated, re¬ 
minding one of a 
mailet or double¬ 
headed hammer, 
and the eyes are 
at the extreme out¬ 
er ends. The skin 
is tough, the flesh 
leathery, and unfit 
to eat. The liver 
yields a good deal 
of valuable oil. This 
fish is held in dread 
by the fishermen o£ 
our coast on ac¬ 
count of its ferocity, 
and it is one of 
those sharks which 
occasionally attack 
surf-bathers who 
swim out far from shore. Its food is princi¬ 
pally flatfish, skates, and other bottom fish. 
