BIRDS OF THE SALT MARSHES 



startling than the uncanny cries with which 

 these birds suddenly pierce the gloom. 



The adult night heron is a handsome bird, 

 with its pearl-gray back and white breast and 

 with its black crown and slender drooping 

 plumes. It is very conspicuous as it stands 

 like a sentry in the green marsh, but on the 

 white sands it is far less noticeable. The most 

 striking pictures made by these birds are to 

 be seen some five miles away in the heronry 

 — the source of supply for the whole region. 

 The parent birds on the tree-tops, in a setting 

 of graceful larch sprays against a clear blue 

 sky, make up a scene which in beauty con- 

 trasts strangely with the hideous blackness 

 and nakedness, as well as with the reptile-like 

 actions of the young birds in the nests and on 

 the branches below, and with the filth that 

 assails the eyes and nostrils, and with the dis- 

 cordant cries that rend the air. Perhaps it 

 it no more fair to judge of the family life and 

 customs of night herons from a trip below the 

 trees in which the}^ are nesting, than it would 

 be to judge of the customs of the Parisians 

 by a journey through their sewers. Be this 

 as it may, the noise and the stench of a large 

 heronry remain long in the memory. 



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