BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. 



157 



in Essex County, particularly in the region of the salt marshes. Night Herons 

 are very gregarious, not only in their breeding places or heronries, but also when 

 feeding and migrating. Following the rule of night-feeding birds, they may be 

 seen migrating by day, and it is not uncommon to see, in August and September, 

 flocks of thirty or more flying south. Dr. Phillips noted a spring arrival- of these 

 birds on March 27th, 1904, — a large flock alighting in the evening near his 

 Wenham farm. 



In late May and in June, one can see these birds to best advantage, for the 

 demands of the young are so great that large numbers of adults are found fish- 

 ing on the flats in the tidal estuaries in mid-day. At this season too, I have 

 found about 35 Night Herons resting in the pitch pines among the dunes at 

 Ipswich, although they do not nest there. Later in the season, although a few 

 still feed by day, the majority appear to jest at this time, spending the day in 

 the woods away from the shore, or among the trees in the marsh islands. Dur- 

 ing August, a flock of over 200 may be found in the trees on the north side of 

 Castle Hill, Ipswich. At night, they flock to the salt marshes, to the sand 

 beaches, and to the flats exposed by the tide, uttering their loud quaivks as 

 they fly. Both on the beaches and on the sandflats of the creeks, it is interest- 

 ing to find them feeding at night, their spectral forms and weird cries adding 

 to the sense of loneliness produced by the surrounding darkness. 



Among the dunes, the beautiful light plumage of the adults matches well 

 the sand. It is not always knovm that the adult females as well as males have 

 plumes, and the plumes vary in number from one to four, although the latter 

 number is very rare. An old Ipswich gunner calls the full plumaged adult by 

 the curious name of " Dispar Goose," a name I have been unable to find any- 

 where. In the early spring, just before the eggs are laid, birds in the streaked 

 gray, immature plumage are to be seen, shov^dng that in some cases, at least, 

 more than one year is needed for their full maturity. 



Heronries are always interesting places, especially just before the young 

 birds are able to fly. One of these, about five miles from the sea near the 

 middle of the County, occupies from three to four acres in a swamp of some ten 

 acres in extent on the border of a pond. The chief nesting trees are black 

 spruces, larches, and red maples, from thirty to fifty feet high. Where the nests 

 are thickest, much of the small undergrowth is dead, apparently killed by the 

 birds' droppings. I am unable to estimate the number of birds nesting there, but 

 on July 7th, 1904, I counted 38 nests from one spot in the middle of the 

 heronry, and the thickness of the foliage prevented all but near vision. The 

 nests, loosely compacted of stout sticks, were clustered everywhere in the trees, 

 generally about thirty feet from the ground, sometimes five or sue in one tree. 

 On that date the young birds had generally left their nests and were everywhere 

 standing motionless like statues in groups of five or six on the tops of the trees. 



