262 THE STORY OF A BIRD LOVER 



Returning from my trip to the South I visited 

 at the mouth of Tampa Bay an enormous 

 breeding ground of Cabot's terns, and continued 

 my way homeward, reaching Tarpon Springs 

 early in July. Throughout the summer I 

 collected birds of the region, and made careful 

 records of all observations regarding the summer 

 bird fauna of the locality. Practically this sort of 

 work was continued throughout the year, and 

 until the following June, that of 1887, when I left 

 Florida for a brief period, spending some three 

 months in the North. 



Several matters that came under my notice 

 during this time seem worthy of record. On the 

 7th of February, 1887, from a nest in a rookery 

 not far from the town, I took three young of Ward's 

 heron, the prototype of the great blue heron of 

 the North, and similar to that bird in general ap- 

 pearance, though somewhat larger. These young 

 birds were about three weeks old, and were pass- 

 ing from the downy to the feathered state of 

 plumage. My purpose was, to watch their growth, 

 especially the development of the feathers. I put 

 the fledgling herons under a rude cover in the 

 yard inside of a low fence which they could not 

 climb over, and fed them fresh fish cut into 

 pieces. They also had a supply of water. In 

 the space of a week or ten days, they were fully 

 able to care for themselves, and it was only 



