THE OOLOGIST 



183 



They Are Gone. 



Years ago, seven miles south of 

 Lacon, Illinois, the Great Blue Heron 

 bred in large numbers. The •'Herony'" 

 as it was locally known, was situated 

 at the head of a bayou or slough, a 

 wide, shallow pond-like lake surround- 

 ed with flags, wild rice and bull 

 rushes, called "Rice Pond" into the 

 head of which emi)tied a small creek 

 that wound through the West edge of 

 the Herony. The whole territory was 

 a perfect marsh and lay about a mile 

 east of the Illinois river, and a half 

 mile West of the East line of the high 

 water overflow of the river bottoms 

 proper. 



Here was situated a small grove 

 containing fifteen or twenty very large 

 cotton wood and sycamore trees. The 

 size of these trees was immense. 

 These birds nested along with the 

 White Egret and the Florida Cormor- 

 ant in considerable numbers at this 

 place, building their nests of dry, dead 

 and very light sticks; though some of 

 the sticks were of considerable size. 

 The nests were placed at the extre- 

 mities of the branches of the tallest 

 trees both at the ends of the verticle 

 limbs and of the horizontal limbs. 

 This Heronry had been in existence 

 ever since the first settlement of the 

 country. The White Egret was the 

 first to go. thirty years ago seeing the 

 last of the nesting birds of this spe- 

 cies at that point. 



The Florida Cormorant followed 

 next in order. In 1890 was the last 

 time these birds nested among their 

 old neighbors, the Blue Heron. 



The main line of the great Santa Fe 

 Railway was built from Kansas City 

 to Chicago in 1887 and passed almost 

 through the Northerly edge of this 

 Heronry within less than a quarter of 

 a mile of it. It vvas soon after this 

 that the Cormorants left. The Great 

 Blue Heron however, stayed by its old 



home as long as the old home stayed 

 by it, and their nests dotted these 

 great tree tops in this vicinity until 

 this year, (1909.) 



In 1901 the Sanitary District of Chi- 

 cago turned down the Illinois river, 

 the sewage of Chicago, diluted with 

 vast quantities of Lake Michigan wat- 

 er. This has raised the level of the 

 river and permanently overflowed all 

 the surrounding bottom lands, with 

 the result that nearly all the large 

 timber in the valley along the river 

 is dead. These giant cotton woods and 

 sycamores that had withstood the 

 storms of years, succumbed to this 

 new flood of water and gradually died 

 out, their roots rotted off, and the 

 winds did the rest. Ui)on their re- 

 turn home this Spring, the Great Blue 

 Heron found no home to return home 

 this S])ring, the Great Blue Heron 

 found no home to retui-n to and has 

 gone elsewhere. 



My first visit to this Heronry was in 

 April, 1888, at which time there were 

 forty-two nests of the Great Blue 

 Heron here, eleven of which were in 

 cue giant cotton wood tree. 



May 2, 1900, I again returned to this 

 Heronry and found fortj^-seven Heron's 

 nests in the trees; one tree contain- 

 ing thirteen nests. 



May f), 191)4, found me again in the 

 Heronry, which had by this time in- 

 creased until it contained sixty-seven 

 nests. At this latter time, the birds 

 scened wild, and there was evidence 

 cf the Heronry having been raided by 

 shooters, as dead birds wei-e lyini; all 

 rcurd. 



At each cf these visits, I took sever- 

 al sets cf eggs, and a beautiful sight 

 it was tco, to sit in the very topmost 

 blanches cf a huge cottonwood tree 

 and Icok down into from ten to a doz- 

 en nests scattered in every direction 

 belcw me, on the outermost branches 

 of the tree. The nests containe<l from 



