-222 



THE MUSEUM 



this without taking into consideration 

 the young birds of the previous year, 

 which should have greatly increased 

 the numbar of birds in the colony, 



At the present rate of decrease in 

 numbers this colony of birds is doom- 

 ed to extinctiou within five years at 

 the outside, and sooner or later this 

 will be the fate of every Heron within 

 this state. 



At Hudson, Me., a colony of a hun- 

 dred or more pairs of birds has been 

 utterly broken up within the last five 

 years, owing to the cutting down of 

 the trees in which they had nested, 

 but of course these birds have sought 

 another and probably safer locality for 

 nesting. 



The worst destruction of all has 

 been wrought among the colonies 

 which formerly nested on the islands 

 of Penobscot Bay. Plume hunters 

 have killed hundreds of birds, and 

 where formerly hundreds of birds nest- 

 ed, there are now only tens and twen- 

 ties. 



With the desire of making a study 

 of their habits I left Bangor on May 

 1 5th for a frying visit to Pickering's Is- 

 land, where ten years ago the Great 

 Blue and Black-crowned Night Herons 

 nested in countless numbers. Leav- 

 ing Bangor at i p. m. I proceeded by 

 train to Bucksport and here met my 

 friend, Mr. Dorr, who was to accom- 

 pany me on the trip. We embarked 

 in a small rowboat, and being fortun- 

 ate enough to meet with a small 

 steamer which was going our way, and 

 with whose captain my companion was 

 acquainted, we were able to get towed 

 a distance of i^ miles on our journey, 

 n Being cast loose at Castine, where 

 the steamer left us,- we were obliged 

 to take to our oars and make a des- 



perate pull against a head wind and 

 tide. In the face of these difficulties 

 it was after 10 p. m. when we reached 

 our destination. As we landed an Os- 

 prey uttered its shrill whistle of alarm, 

 and several Herons joined in with dis- 

 cordant squawks. 



We partook of a belated supper and 

 pitched our .tent for the night. At 

 daybreak we awoke and started on our 

 tour of inspection. Alas! What had 

 become of the birds that formerly 

 made the island their home.' What 

 had become of the 50 pairs of birds 

 that my companion found nesting there 

 when he visited the place in May, 

 iSyS-' All but a meager remnant had 

 been slaughtered or had left the place. 

 We found fresh traces of the plume 

 hunter, in observing thr recently killed 

 carcases of three or four birds. Only 

 about five pairs of living birds remain- 

 ed in the colony and but four nests 

 contained eggs, three containing four 

 eggs each, while the other contained 

 three eggs. These all belonged to the 

 Great Blue Herons and my companion 

 informed me that the Night Herons 

 had not nested on the island since 

 1890. With the best of luck this col- 

 ony can only rear fifteen young birds 

 this present season and probably will 

 not do that well. 



We now left for another island 

 where my friend thought the Night 

 Herons still nested; while en route we 

 passed an Osprey's nest placed on a 

 ledge of rock about three feet above 

 high tide level. The nest was a huge, 

 bulky affair, three or four bushels of 

 sticks and other rubbish being used in 

 its construction. As the nests are gen- 

 erally placed in trees, this was some- 

 thing unusual to find a nest on the 

 ground, but later on we found another 



