Identifier: birdcraftfield00wrig (find matches)
Title: Birdcraft : a field book of two hundred song, game, and water birds
Year: 1897 (1890s)
Authors: Wright, Mabel Osgood, 1859-1934 Fuertes, Louis Agassiz, 1874-1927
Subjects: Birds -- United States
Publisher: New York : Macmillan Co.
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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the Great Horned and Snow Owls.In many places they appear in small flocks, but I havenever seen them here, except as individuals or occasionallyin pairs. They are wild, suspicious birds, and yet, if theythink themselves unobserved, they will stand almost motion-less by the side of a small stream or pond half a day ata time, only bending the long neck at intervals to seize somefrog or other edible. You may stand by a smooth mill-pondwalled by trees that hang into the water. Through manygaps the distant meadows stretch, almost as smooth as thepond, but of a different hue; it is a lovely, placid scene, butneeds a bit of life to draw it to a focus. Look a secondtime; upon the muddy edge of one of the little islands, inbold relief, sphinx-like, stands a solitary Blue Heron, andyou at once understand why Egypt gave reverence to theIbis. Deliberately it spreads its wings that winnow sixfeet of air, and flies slowly across the water, its legs hang-ing like twin reeds with clawing roots. 252 .
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SHORE AND MARSH BIRDS. Green Heron Green Heron: Ardea virescens. Poke. Length: 16-18 inches. Male and Female: Head with lengthened crest. Above dark glossygreen, sometimes with an iridescence. Edging of wing covertsreddish. Neck a rich shade of chestnut, with a purplish wash,white streak at the throat, and under parts whitish, shading toash below. Legs and bill yellowish. Season : Common summer resident. Breeds : Through its North American range. Nest: Of sticks in a tree, seldom high up. Eggs: 3-6, pale green. Bange: Canada and Oregon, southward to northern South Americaand the West Indies; rare in the arid interior. That this Heron is the commonest and best known of itsfamily, is attested by the numerous local names it bears.Fly-up-the-creek, Chalk-line/^ and Chuckle-head beinga few of the list to which every small boy feels it his dutyto add one, usually of a very uncomplimentary nature. When seen in the breeding-season, at short range, theplumage of these Herons is very lustrous a

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