202 BULLETIN 135, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



from their nests in a cloud, and with much squawking, scolding, and flapping of 

 wings, rapidly retreated to a place of safety in the marsh half a mile or more- 

 distant. Fifty yards farther on we came to the spot from which the birds had- 

 risen, and here in the dense cat-tails were the nests, probably 150 in all, large, 

 clumsy, yet withal well built struetures of coarse sticks and weed stalks, rang- 

 ing in height from 6 inches to 3 feet above the ground, which was wet and boggy 

 and in many places covered with several inches of water. On May 11, while 

 working over a small lake about half mile below the marsh which harbored 

 the nesting colony of the preceding year, we found two nests of these erratic 

 birds, built just above the surface of water almost waist deep and fully 50 

 yards out from the shore of the lake. These nests — the bottoms of which were 

 just level with the surface of the water — were supported by masses of floating, 

 dead vegetation, and were anchored in place by a few upright dead cat-tail 

 stalks. They were beautifully built affairs of slender twigs and weed stalks,, 

 very large, bulky, deeply cupped and quite symmetrical; and lying far out from 

 shore upon the open water they were very conspicuous, being easily discernible- 

 at a distance of 100 yards. The parent birds were very wild, and it was impos- 

 sible to approach anywhere near the nests without flushing the birds. 



In Florida we often found black-crowned night herons nesting in 

 small numbers in the rookeries with other herons. Many of the 

 rookeries examined on the coast of Texas contained a few pairs oT 

 this species, nesting in low situations in the shrubbery. On one 

 island, in Galveston Bay, they were nesting in tall canes, where 

 their nests were made wholly of the stems of dead canes. On Dress- 

 ing Point Island, in Matagorda Bay, we found a fair-sized colony 

 nesting on the dry ground among tufts of tall grass. 



Doctor Gross (1923) refers to a number of different colonies nest- 

 ing in a variety of situations, among which he mentions a colony 

 which "selected an old apple orchard for their nesting site," which 

 they occupied for 10 years, near Atwood, Illinois. 



W. L. Finley (1906) found a colony of about 200 pairs in a fir for- 

 est south of Portland, Oregon, in which none of the nests were less- 

 than 130 feet up and some were 160 feet above the ground. In a 

 colony which he found at the lower end of San Francisco Bay, Cali- 

 fornia, in the summer of 1904, he noted 41 nests of the great blue 

 heron and 28 nests of the black-crowned night heron in a single giant 

 sycamore, 7 feet thick at the base, 120 feet high and with a spread equal 

 to its height. In another tree there were 17 great blue and 28 night 

 heron nests. In this large colony of 700 nests those of the night 

 heron were placed at the very upturned tips of the sycamore limbs- 

 or else in the willows and alders at a relatively short distance from, 

 the ground. Mr. Finley counted 400 eggs from a single point in a 

 giant sycamore tree which gives some idea of the density of the her- 

 on homes at this unusal rookery. In other localities in California, 

 such as Merced and San Diego Counties, night herons have also been 

 found nesting in tule swamps, sometimes in company with white-faced 

 glossy ibises. 



