196 



BIRDS OF AiMERICA 



parentlv they do not associate in colonies with 

 other Herons, hut always form their own village. 

 In Hillsboro County, Florida, some years ago, 

 I waded out in a large pond thickly grown with 

 trees through the foliage of which the sun rarely 



Photo by H. M. Lainj^ Courtesy ol Outing Pub. Co. 



NOT SINGING, BUT HUNGRY 



Young Night Herons 



pierced to the dark scum-water beneath. The 

 object of my venture was to discover whetlier 

 any Egrets were breeding among a company of 



1 lerons, whose squawks told me they were nesting 

 in the trees surrounding an open place in the 

 center of the pond. Submerged logs, fallen limbs 

 and aquatic moss made the going difficult. The 

 place was infested with water-moccasins and 

 alligators, and the nervous strain soon began to 

 tell. Upon reaching a point perhaps sixty yards 

 from shore where the water and slime was breast 

 deep, I was startled beyond all description by a 

 sudden hoarse cry and heavy flapping directly 

 overhead. Unknowingly I had waded into the 

 midst of a colony of Yellow-crowned Night 

 Herons. 



While occupying the same pond with the 

 other Herons, they were at least two hundred 

 feet from the nearest nest of any other species. 

 Before leaving I counted sixteen nests, all of 

 which appeared to be occupied. 



These birds are supposed to feed largely upon 

 mussels and crawfish and along the coast many 

 small crabs are consumed. They retire to the 

 far south in the autumn and do not reappear in 

 the northern part of their range until March. 

 After the nesting season many of the young 

 wander far inland and in North Carolina I have 

 seen them during the month of August more than 

 two hundred miles from the coast. 



T. Gilbert Pe.\rson. 



X 



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Photo by S. N. Leek 



NEST OF GREAT BLUE HERON 

 Showing the four bluish eggs 



