(iKKAT liLUE IIF:R0N. 95 



renders Herons conspicuous, and, tlioni:;!! worthless as 

 food, few so-cuIUmI sportsmen can resist the temptation 

 of shooting at them when opportunity offers. Several 

 of the Southern species, notahly tlie Snowy Heron and 

 White Egret, are adorned (hiring the nesting season with 

 the heautiful '' aigrette '' phimes which are apparently so 

 necessary a part of woman's headgear that tliey will go 

 out of fashion only when the birds go out of existence. 

 One can not blame the ])lunie hunters, who are generally 

 poor men, for killing birds whose plumes are worth more 

 than their weight in gold — the blame lies in another 

 quarter. But I have no words with which to express 

 my condenmation of the man who kills one of these 

 birds wantonly. 



The presence of a stately Great Bine Heron or 

 '•• Crane '' adds an element to the landscape which no 



Great Blue Heron, ^^^^'^^ * '^ "^=^^1 ^''"^ eqnal. Its grace of 

 Ardea herodias. fomi and niotion, emphasized by its 

 Plate VI. large size, is a constant dehght to the 



eye ; it is a symbol of the wild in Xatnre ; one never 

 tires of watching it. What punishment, then, is severe 

 enough for the man who robs his fellows of so pnre 

 a source of enjoyment ? A rifle l)all turns this noble 

 creatui-e into a useless mass of flesh and feathers ; the 

 loss is irreparable. Still, we have no law to prevent it. 

 Herons are said to devonr large nnndiers of small fish. 

 But is not the hd)Oi'er worthy of his hire ? Are the flsh 

 more valuable than this, one of the grandest of birds ? 



The Great l>lne Heron breeds throughout Xorth 

 America, but there are now only a few localities in the 

 northeastern States where it may be found nesting. We 

 usually see it, therefore, as a migrant in April and ^lay, 

 and from August to November. 



The Little Green ML^nm is the smallest, as the Great 

 Blue Heron is the largest, of our Herons. Its small 



