112 BULLETIN 135;, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



rookeries and, as soon as the herons are frightened away from their 

 nests, these black marauders pounce down on the nests and devour 

 the eggs. 

 R. P. Sharpies, in his notes, relates the following incident: 



Once a red-shouldered hawk sailed over at great height. Presently he espied 

 the unprotected heron eggs, and folding his wings he dropped down like a bullet 

 right into the treetops amid the heron nests. Then the parent birds saw him 

 and all came piling home in a hurry, no longer afraid of their human enemies. 

 The hawk missed his dinner for the herons with their long daggerlike bills are well 

 able to defend their nests. 



In this connection it is interesting to note that both the red- 

 shouldered hawk and the red-tailed hawk have been recorded as 

 nesting in or near heron rookeries. In southern rookeries nests of 

 turkey or black vultures are often found. Mr. Hastings once found 

 a pair of great horned owls raising a brood in an old nest in the middle 

 of a colony. 



Fall. — Throughout the northern part of its range the great blue 

 heron is migratory. Its fall migration is particularly well marked. 

 Many individuals migrate singly, as solitary birds are often seen^ 

 but flocks of a dozen or 20 birds are not uncommon. I have several 

 times seen such flocks in the fall, but none in the spring. Doctor 

 Townsend (1920) says that "at Ipswich, on October 28, 1917, at 5 

 p. m. a flock of 20 of these great birds flew south high up over the 

 marshes in a loose V or U formation." In some notes, sent to me by 

 Harry S. Hathaway, from Miss Elizabeth Dickens, she writes that 

 on November 12, 1910, a flock of 12 appeared about 8.30 a. m. on 

 Block Island: 



After circling awhile like gulls playing in air they dropped down on the edge 

 of the bluff. I had never seen more than nine in a flock before. Of course, the 

 gunners got after them and they had to depart, but that was only the beginning. 

 All the forenoon they came from the west in flocks of from 2 to 60. I counted 

 40 in one flock and 60 in another that were in sight at one time. The life savers 

 said these were all one flock until their shooting divided them. 



I believe that there is a regular coastwise flight, over the water as 

 well as over land, for we often saw them when off shore "coot" 

 shooting. 



Winter. — The great blue herons of the North mingle in winter with 

 their near relatives of the southern Atlantic and Gulf States, adding 

 materially to the heron populations of these congenial shores. There 

 they live in peace and harmony with their neighbors, sharing with 

 them the bounteous supply of fish and other foods. Many linger as far 

 north as the central portions of the United States and stragglers are 

 occasionally seen as far north as New England and Michigan. 

 W. J. Erichsen (1921) says of their winter habits on the coast of 

 Georgia : 



