bartsch] herons of the district- of COLUMBIA 105 



placed in the tops of slender pines, close to the center, twenty-five to 

 forty feet from the ground, contained eggs. The nests (plate 

 XXXIII, i) are poor structures, mere platforms of dead twigs, some- 

 what depressed in the center and abundantly chalked with the excreta 

 of the birds ; they are so thin that the eggs could frequently be 

 seen through them from the ground. 



Night Herons, as their name implies, are nocturnal in their habits. 

 During the day all is quiet at the heronry. The males sit in the 

 pines while the females pursue their task of incubation. Late in the 

 afternoon, however, they leave the breeding grounds, flying in all 

 directions to their favored hunting places. If disturbed during the 

 day they will leave the trees with a few short, harsh quacks, sail 

 about overhead for a while (plate xxxii, 2), then settle down quietly 

 to watch the proceedings of the intruder. If the colony be invaded 

 a little later when the large, light bluish-green eggs (plate xxxiii, 2) 

 have delivered up their charge, the anxiety of the parents becomes 

 more manifest and the birds leave the premises more reluctantly ; 

 in fact, it seems almost as if one had invaded a hen-roost, each bird 

 shrieking and cackling as he or she leaves the nest or perch. Add 

 to this the notes or calls of the young, and one has a fair notion of 

 the din that greets him. 



The young at birth (plate xxxiii, 3) are about as ugly birdlings as 

 can be imagined ; they are dark-skinned, wet, almost nude, with im- 

 mense heads and large bills, quite out of proportion to the rest 

 of the body, bearing a fairly strong, pointed knob at the tip which 

 assisted them in breaking their egg-shell prisons. Weak and 

 limp they lie stretched out in the middle of the nest. But a few 

 hours bring wonderful changes. The wet down which clung closely 

 to the body has become dried and fluffed up and the little birds are 

 now enveloped in a coat of fine slaty-blue down. They even possess 

 a decided head-crest of somewhat hghter color than the body-down, 

 which gives to them a grotesque if not formidable appearance. 

 Young herons grow very rapidly. Three days after hatching they are 

 much increased in size, having considerably longer down and the 

 first indications of pin-feathers (plate xxxiii, 4). By the end of the 

 first week they are fairly bristling with pin-feathers and the feather- 

 tracts have become strongly marked (plate xxxiv, i). On the tenth 

 day (plate xxxiv, 2) many of the feather-sheaths have become rup- 

 tured at the tips, and the birds begin to appear in their first plumage. 

 :\bout three weeks mark the termination of their stav in the nest 



