GREAT HERON. 295 



one which was shot in the upper parts of New Hampshire, was described 

 to me as a great curiosity. Many of their breeding places occur in 

 both Carolinas, chiefly in the vicinity of the sea. In the lower parts 

 of New Jersey they have also their favorite places for building, and 

 rearing their young. These are generally in the gloomy solitudes of 

 the tallest cedar swamps, where, if unmolested, they continue annually 

 to breed for many years. These swamps are from half a mile to a mile 

 in breadth, and sometimes five or six in length, and appear as if they 

 occupied the former channel of some choked up river, stream, lake, 

 or arm of the sea. The appearance they present to a stranger is 

 singular. A front of tall and perfectly straight trunks, rising to the 

 height of fifty or sixty feet without a limb, and crowded in every direc- 

 tion, their tops so closely woven together as to shut out the day, 

 spreading the gloom of perpetual twilight below. On a near approach 

 they are found to rise out of the water, which from the impregnation of 

 the fallen leaves and roots of the cedars, is of the color of brandy. 

 Amidst this bottom of congregated springs, the ruins of the former 

 forest lie piled in every state of confusion. The roots, prostrate logs, 

 and in many places the water, are covered with green mantling moss, 

 while an undergrowth of laurel, fifteen or twenty feet high, intersects 

 every opening so completely, as to render a passage through laborious 

 and harassing beyond description ; at every step you either sink to the 

 knees, clamber over fallen timber, squeeze yourself through between 

 the stubborn laurels, or plunge to the middle in ponds made by the 

 uprooting of large trees, and which the green moss concealed from 

 observation. In calm weather the silence of death reigns in these 

 dreary regions ; a few interrupted rays of light shoot across the gloom.; 

 and unless for the occasional hollow screams of the Herons, and the 

 melancholy chirping of one or two species of small birds, all is silence, 

 solitude and desolation. When a breeze rises, at first it sighs mourn- 

 fully through the tops ; but as the gale increases, the tall mast-like 

 cedars wave like fishing poles, and rubbing against each other, produce 

 a variety of singular noises, that, with the help of a little imagination, 

 resemble shrieks, groans, growling of bears, wolves and such like 

 comfortable music. 



On the tops of the tallest of these cedars the Herons construct their 

 nests, ten or fifteen pair sometimes occupying a particular part of the 

 swamp. The nests are large, formed of sticks, and lined with smaller 

 twigs ; each occupies the top of a single tree. The eggs are generally 

 four, of an oblong pointed form, larger than those of a hen, and of a 

 light greenish blue without any spots. The young are produced about 

 the middle of May, and remain on the trees until they are full as heavy 

 as the old ones, being extremely fat, before they are able to fly. They 

 breed but once in the season. If disturbed in their breeding place, 



