138 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 



48. Nycticorax nycticorax naevius (Bodd.). 

 Black-crowned Night Heron. Night Heron. Quaw Bird. 



Formerly an abundant summer resident; from 1875 to 1895 a permanent resident, but 

 not common in winter ; at the present time found only sparingly, chiefly in late summer and 

 early autumn. 



SEASONAL OCCURRENCE. 



April 10 — November i. (Formerly permanent resident.) 



Sixty years or more ago Night Herons nested very numerously in the 

 immediate neighborhood of Cambridge. Their breeding place, according to 

 Nuttall,^ was " in a very secluded and marshy island, in Fresh Pond," where, 

 although " the birds have been frequently robbed of their eggs, in great num- 

 bers, by mischievous boys, they still lay again immediately after, and usually 

 succeed in raising a sufficient brood." It is difficult to understand this assertion 

 unless we assume that the word ' swamps ' was accidentally omitted after 

 ' Fresh Pond,' for the pond itself is not known to have ever contained an 

 island, ' marshy ' or otherwise. Dr. Brewer once told me that, when he visited 

 the Cambridge heronry in 1834 and 1835, it was in a tract of swampy woods 

 near Alewife Brook and not far from where the Cambridge Almshouse now 

 stands, but on the opposite (/. e. southwestern) side of the main road (now 

 Massachusetts Avenue) leading from Cambridge to Arlington. Owing to its 

 proximity to this road the birds, even then, were much persecuted and their 

 numbers, although considerable, had been greatly reduced. In the 'Water Birds 

 of North America' ^ Dr. Brewer states that this heronry once "occupied many 

 acres;" that, "previous to the draining" of the surrounding region, it "was 

 almost inaccessible ; " and that the Herons' " nests were in the highest trees, and 

 never less than twenty feet from the ground." 



I questioned Dr. Samuel Cabot closely, respecting these matters, when I 

 last saw him, shortly before his death, in 1885. His testimony, in the main, 

 agreed with that of Dr. Brewer. He said that when he was at Harvard College 

 (1832- 1 836) the heronry was situated in some extensive swampy woods that 



' T. Nuttall, Manual of the Ornithology of the United States and of Canada. The Water 

 Birds, 1834, 55-56. 



" Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway, Water Birds of North America, I, 1884, 59. 



