104 BULLETIN 135^ UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



the nests were seen in one big tree. These structures are made of small twigs, 

 in a thin layer, so thin that the eggs can be seen from the ground at the foot of 

 the tree. The nests are shallow platforms, and instead of being close to the 

 trunk arc generally out on the tops of the higher limbs, often being from 85 to 

 100 feet from the ground. They are about 3 feet across and are very insecure 

 nesting places. 



William B. Crispin wrote me that near Salem, New Jersey, these her- 

 ons build their nests in the forks of limbs of the largest trees, from 

 70 to 130 feet from the ground, in swampy, briery places. He said 

 that the largest colony near Salem contained some 80 nests and that he 

 has found nests in pines, pin oaks, white oaks, chestnuts, tulip trees, 

 and swamp maples. 



Richard C. Harlow mentions, in the notes he sent me, a colony of 

 about 20 pairs, near Glassbow, New Jersey, nesting in tall pine trees 

 from 70 to 90 feet high. The nests were all repaired from the re- 

 mains of the preceding years, were made of oak sticks and were "lined 

 with bunches of green pine needles." 



Edwin F. Northrup (1885), in describing a large colony on the north 

 shore of Oneida Lake, New York, says: 



The timber in the swamp is all black ash and grows very high, branching at the 

 top. The trees arc slender, varying from 1 to 3 feet in diameter, and are readily 

 climbed with spurs, that is if one is an adept at using them. Several hundreds 

 of these nests, built in crotches of the limbs, are grouped together at one place 

 in the swamp and cover a space nearly or quite half a mile across. Nearly every 

 tree which rises to the general height of the rest and which has favorable crotches, 

 contains from one to four nests. Two, however, is the more usual number in 

 one tree, four being seldom found. The nests are constructed of sticks about one- 

 fourth to half an inch in diameter. A large bundle is laid on a crotch and lined 

 with finer twigs, making a flat nest from 25 to 40 inches in diameter. 



Dana G. Gillett (1896) says that in Tonawanda Swamp in west- 

 ern New York: 



The great blue heron also nests in large elm trees, selecting one with a very 

 large trunk, and nearly always building at the extremity of a limb, generally a 

 horizontal one, and many are not strong enough to bear the weight of a man, 

 thereby making it exceedingl}' dangerous to try to approach the nest. 



I have seen as many as eight nests in the top of one large spreading elm, and 

 the old herons sitting on their nests, which would swing to and fro with every 

 breeze. The nests are very large, usually about 4 feet across, and sometimes 

 larger, being composed of sticks, some of them larger than a man's thumb, firm- 

 ly stuck together, and lined with fine bark or moss, but sometimes composed 

 only of sticks. 



Perhaps the most interesting of all are the colonies in Michigan, 

 where the herons build their nests in giant sycamores at lioights 

 varying from 50 to 90 feet above the ground. Eugene Pericles (1895) 

 gives a thrilling account of egg collecting in such a rookery in Van 

 Buren County. The smallest sycamore was only 7 feet in circum- 

 ference, but it was 40 feet to the first limb and there were 12 nests 

 in it, distributed over five large straggling limbs and either at or 



