jjqo The Cornell READiNO-CorRSES 



them from sinking into the mud, long necks to enable them to reach the 

 water without stooping, and long, javelin-like bills for spearing their prey. 

 The edges of their bills are very sharp and in some cases have minute serra- 

 tions, which enable them to cut through the slime and to hold their slippery 

 game. The bitterns keep to the marshes, where their streaked brown 

 pltimage so harmonizes with the cat-tails and the sedges as to make them 

 very inconspicuous. The herons are seen along the shores of lakes, streams, 

 and ponds, either silently waiting until some luckless fish comes their way 

 or gracefully stalking through the shallow water in search of frogs and 

 crayfish. So much do they add to the landscape, and so valueless are the 

 few species of fish that they destroy, that it is little short of criminal to 

 kill them unless it has been absolutely determined that they are destroying 

 valuable trout fry. 



In flight herons stretch their feet out behind and throw their heads 

 back on their shoulders. The great blue heron in flight appears larger 

 than an eagle, measuring more than six feet across. The green heron is 

 about the size of a crow, even resembling it in flight. At close range it 

 appears blue rather than green, as the green is restricted to the wings while 

 the back and the shoulders are bluish gray. The neck and the under- 

 parts are chestnut. 



The night heron is larger than a crow. The adult birds are pure white 

 below and pearl gray above, the upper back and the top of the head being 

 black. Immature birds closely resemble the bittern. They are nocturnal 

 in their feeding habits, usually seen toward dusk or early in the morning. 



The plungers 



These include the fish hawk, or osprey, the kingfisher, and the terns. 

 The fish hawk, unlike the others of this group, seizes its prey in its talons, 

 which have been modified from those of other hawks so that two toes are 

 directed forward and two backward; and the soles of its feet are covered 

 with sharp, homy scales to help in holding the slippery fish. It frequently 

 catches fish weighing several pounds, but they are always of a species 

 that swims close to the surface or lies in the shallows. As few of the fresh- 

 water commercial fishes except the pikes have this habit, the depreda- 

 tions by the fish hawks are not great — as is evidenced by the fact that 

 fishermen are their best friends, always welcoming their appearance in 

 the spring. Their only enemy save the bald eagle, which frequently 

 pursues them and steals their well-earned catch, is the thoughtless man 

 with a gun. 



The kingfisher is common along every stream and lake shore in the 

 State, occasionally sta^dng all winter about streams that do not freeze. 

 It is possible that along trout streams this bird sometimes catches trout 

 fry, but the bulk of evidence points toward its feeding on the non-commer- 



