THE OOLOGJST. 



ly treacherous, espec'i;illy on a rainy 

 (lay. 



It was on sucli a day, the 9th of May 

 when K. R. Willhelin and I proceeded 

 t(j hiy in a supply of C^gs of this species 

 after camping out in the woods on the 

 Itanks of the St. Joseph river. Thougli 

 something of a climber myself for high 

 nests in my day, 1 went on this exi-nr- 

 sion simply as a helper, yet with the 

 prospect of taking notes and sharing in 

 the eggs. 



It was simply marvelous to sec this 

 man ascend those smooth boles and go 

 out on the long slippery liml)s. All 

 this too with celerityand without a fail- 

 ure to secure all the full sets, [n one 

 instance he spurred up a smooth .syca- 

 more, ten feet and seven, inches in cir- 

 cumference at three feet from the ground 

 made a personal inspection of each of 

 the sixteen modern nests, colh;ctcd ele- 

 ven con)plete sets of eggs, a:^gre.^ating 

 forty-Hve eggs, which he lowered to me 

 in two hand-baskelfuls and returned to 

 the ground in one hour and twenty min- 

 utes. In this way he collected nearly 

 two himdred eggs out of six trees, all 

 of which were .sycamores excepting one 

 giant elm about eleven feet in circum- 

 ference. Four eggs seems to be the us- 

 ual number, though theie were several 

 sets of five, and two sets of six. It is a 

 singular fact that the eggs are consider- 

 al)iy smaller than those of the same spe- 

 cies found in Florida, while a set of eggs 

 from that state embraces but three. 



Many nests visited on May 0th con- 

 tained j'oung birils of quite three weeks 

 which raisetl considerable clatter when 

 the old Hnrons hove in sight with food, 

 while tidly one-fourth the nests wei'e 

 either empty or contained one to three 

 eggs. The very young ijirds were fed 

 l)y disgorging, l)nt the larger young 

 were fed entire lish, a change according 

 to requirements which agrees with the 

 habits of the young pelicans which I 

 luive oljserved in Florida. The old 

 birds often lish in the night, at least 

 when rearing young. When camped 

 near a large heronry we cmld he.ir the 



old ones arriving as late as 10 p. m., 

 and the young birds would immediately 

 rais(4 their clatter for food. 



The Great Blue generally arrives from 

 the South about the middle of March, 

 but is sometimeaa little later, and again 

 in advanced seasons in the early part of 

 the month, or late Februaiy. It does 

 not take its departure till late October, 

 and may sometimes be seen in Decem- 

 ber. 



It is undoul)tedly a very destructive 

 species to our fishing interests, as it 

 feeds largely on small fry, and neces- 

 sarily (toes incalculal)le damage. It al- 

 so feeds on craw Hsh !\s I have proved 

 l)y dissection. I fried to eat the eggs 

 boiled, but found them strong and en- 

 tirely unpalatable. The Great Blue 

 Heron has an extremely gutteral note, 

 but the young ones have a monotonous 

 clatter which would make ahorseliddle 

 turn green with envy. 



American egi^kt 



Also called White Heron and 

 Greater Egret. I know very Uttio 

 comparitively about this species. I do 

 not recall having seen it in the months 

 of May and April or in September and 

 October. However, it is not uncommon 

 occasionally in summer. Twice during 

 the month of July I have known it to 

 be quite common. Have also seen it 

 repeatedly in August. Whether it is ii 

 straggler to our state from the south 

 after the nesting season, or a regular 

 nester to the north of us I cannot saj'. 

 It is a beautiful bird, and is indeed a 

 grand sight when seen stalking along 

 the marshy edge of lake or river, or in- 

 tently watching for its ])re3-, its snowy 

 coat glistening in the sun's rays. 



SNOWY HERON; LESSER EGKET. 



Much rarer than the last. It is re- 

 corded by several lists in the state, but 

 personally 1 know nothing of it. It 

 probably may l)e considei'ed an occa- 

 sional straggler from the south. 



CREEN HERtJN; 

 Also called Shyte-poke and Fly-up- 



