94 NOTES ON THE 



above water, he takes advantage of the moment when, with 

 their heads immersed, each is seeking a spot in which to hide, 

 and steps promptly but cautiously along to a favorable posi- 

 tion, and assuming his wonted attitude with his neck drawn 

 back over the breast, and when an inquisitive head rises, the 

 same fatal stroke brings Johnny Crapeau's favorite "to bag." 

 Communal as they often are in breeding, they always hunt sol- 

 itarily, and seem to individually have a sort of squatter's pre- 

 emption over a given territory, returning to it daily through 

 the entire season. The young having become full grown by 

 the first to the tenth of August, they may subsequently be often 

 seen going forth in the early morning in families supposably, 

 and returning at evening by the same routes in like parties. 

 I have never seen them later than the 25th of October. They 

 seem all to disappear at nearly the same time. 



Dr. Hvoslef reports them at Lanesboro and vicinity early in 

 April and late in October, but mentions the discovery of no 

 nests or heronries. 



Mr. Lewis reports them common in all of the northwestern 

 portions of the state as far as Pembina. Mr. Clague finds 

 them occasionally in the lower portions of Grant county. The 

 most frequented locality I have known for this small heron, is 

 a low boggy marsh through which Minnehaha Creek flows, by 

 which are thus connected Lakes Amelia and Mud, the former 

 of which is partly and the latter entirely within the city limits. 

 Careful observations at the twilight of either end of the day 

 will find them there uniformly. I wish to say that they do not 

 universally breed in communities in Minnesota, for in every 

 instance in which I have found them doing so, I have failed to 

 find other nests or birds. Instances have occurred under my 

 observation, where in the entire absence of trees, or bushes 

 of any size, they have placed the nest, composed of coarse dry 

 weeds and reeds, and cat-tails, on a tussock in a reed-hidden 

 quag-mire. Indeed, in common with many other species of 

 the birds, they manifest great capacity to adapt their habits to 

 extreme circumstances when necessary. One nest, built high 

 and dry above the water in a pond, on the top of a muskrat's 

 house, was pointed out to me, so secure from human intrusion 

 that no attempt was made by the birds at concealment. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 



Bill acute, rather longer than head, gently curved from the 

 base; gonys slightly ascending; legs short, tarsus scarcely 

 longer than middle toe, broadly scutellate anteriorly; lateral 



