i6 



THE GUIDE TO NATURb: 



The Black-crowned Night Herons. 



BY G. B. AFFLECK, A. R., M. P. E., SPRING- 

 FIELD, MASSACHUSETTS. 



In tlie Connecticut river about ten 

 miles below Springfield. Mass., and a 

 mile or so above Windsor Locks. Conn., 

 is an island somewhat more than a mile 



"OTLIERS REMAINED PERCHED NEAR THEIR 



NESTS." 



in length and about half a mile across at 

 its widest part. Locally it is known as 

 Terry's Island, but the Geological Sur- 

 vey maps indicate King's Island. On its 

 southerh- part the black-crowned night 

 herons have nested for at least several 

 years. The field trip of the S])ringfield 

 Allen Bird Club to this heronry is thus 

 described by one of the party: 



"On approaching the island by boat we 

 noted the slow, steady flight of the adult 

 birds and their occasional, contented 



'Ouack!'.. 'Quack!' as they passed up 

 or dowai the river on their way to and 

 from the marshes. Landing at a point 

 remote from the rookery we walked 

 without special precaution towards the 

 nests and soon noted the whirling, cir- 

 cling flight of the overhead birds accom- 

 panied by their frequent, vigorous and 

 high-pitched alarm notes. We were not 

 only discovered but also announced as 

 dangerous. Our nearer approach was 

 greeted by clamor from the several hun- 

 dred adult birds which after quietly 

 leaving their nests circled excitedly 

 overhead. Others remained perched 

 near their nests and 'froze' among the 

 dry bare branches of the dead hemlocks 

 among which for the most part the nests 

 were placed — they can scarcely be de- 

 scribed as built as they consisted en- 

 tirely of sticks loosely thrown together 

 in a pile with slight depressions on the 

 upper side from which at intervals the 

 fledgling- young scrambled in twos or 

 threes or fours. 



"These platforms of sticks were usu- 

 ally thirty or more feet from the ground 

 and in some cases as manv as four or 



AND 'FROZE' AMONG THE DRV BARE 

 r.RAXCHES OF THE DEAD HEMLOCKS." 



