NORTH AMEEICAN MARSH BIRDS 175 



was absent. The pilfering of sticks from the nests of others is a com- 

 mon occurrence in the rookeries, which often leads to a quarrel. 



An interesting hiding pose, which suggests the usefulness of the 

 stripe of brown, black, and white markings on the throat and neck 

 of this and some other species of herons and bitterns, is thus described 

 by William Palmer (1909) : 



The following interesting experience occurred in Florida. I had been walking 

 among the pines with my gun and had slowly approached the backwater of the 

 Kissimmee River where the water had overflowed the short grass well back of 

 the usual shore line. Here I soon noticed a Louisana heron standing in a few 

 inches of water near a small clump of scrub palmettoes and at once conceived 

 the idea of trying to find out how near I could get to the bird. Using the clump 

 as a blind T gradually moved to within about 60 feet. Waiting a while to notice 

 the bird and to allay its fears, for it had evidently detected me, I sat down on 

 the grass and slowly worked myself to one side of the clump in full view of the 

 heron and not over 40 feet away. Here I sat for some time lounging, first on 

 one side and then on the other, at the same time working myself gradually 

 nearer to the water, the heron all the time standing upright and immobile with 

 its breast toward me, the neck upstretched and the bill pointed skyward. I 

 could plainly see the irides, but the bird, now about 25 feet off, stood absolutely 

 still for perhaps 20 minutes until I arose and then it flew off. 



Professor Huxley says in his notes: 



The flight games of this species are interesting. They seem to be indulged in 

 only when the birds have arrived over the nesting pond when flying back from 

 the feeding grounds. They fly in at a steady rate, 100 or 200 feet up, and, when 

 over the roosting place, they fold their wings and drop or volplane down. 

 During the descent the aigrettes fly out like a comet's tail. Some birds volplane 

 steadily down; others fall more rapidly and must skid from side to side before 

 alighting. When thousands are thus performing at once, the sight is a very 

 striking one. 



Enemies. — Plume hunters have made no effort to hunt this spe- 

 cies, as it has no marketable plumes — its plumes might have come 

 on the market, if the demand had continued after the supply of 

 white aigrettes had become exhausted. Many young birds and some 

 older birds have been killed for food. There is, however, a human 

 enemy, unconscious perhaps of his evil deeds, who causes consider- 

 able havoc whenever he indulges in his supposedly harmless sport in a 

 heron rookery; and that is the bird photographer, who sets up his 

 blind in a rookery and keeps the herons off their nests, often for 

 long periods. I remember that, after we had spent parts of three 

 days photographing birds in the great Cuthbert rookery, we left it in a 

 sadly depleted condition. The crows and vultures had cleaned out 

 practically all the nests anywhere near our blinds; the roseate 

 spoonbills and American egrets had been completely broken up and 

 driven away; hundreds of nests of the smaller herons had been robbed; 

 and the ground was strewn with broken egg shells all over the 

 rookery. The egg collector, who is constantly moving about in plain 

 sight, frightens the crows away, as well as the herons, and is there- 



