10 The Wilson Bulletin — Xo. 70. 



haunts. Occasionally one of them would hover over a certain 

 point in the water like a Sparrow Hawk, and then dive down 

 with a splash, to appear a moment later with some unlucky 

 minnow in its bill. I also noticed that these Canadian King- 

 fishers are persistent law-breakers, since they were known to 

 catch dozens of fish less than ten inches long, this being in vio- 

 lation of the Dominion statutes. Nesting holes of this species 

 were also to be seen at intervals along the river. As 

 we passed by one long sandbank, about ten feet high, we 

 noticed a number of smooth round holes, about five inches in 

 diameter, that had undoubtedly been occupied by Kingfishers 

 earlier in the summer. At the time we went down the river, 

 however, they were apparently deserted, although possibly 

 many of the young birds that had been reared in them, were 

 hiding along the banks of the river at that very moment. 



But by far the most conspicuous birds that we saw while on 

 the river, were the Great Blue Herons. In northeastern Ohio, 

 this species occurs only as a rare migrant, but on the Otonabee 

 River it is abundant, and in less than two hours I had counted 

 forty-three indiA'iduals. Their immense size and peculiar hab- 

 its made them objects of interest to everyone who saw them, 

 whether interested in birds or not. Some of them were stand- 

 ing motionless in the shallow water at the edges of the river, 

 watching for fish and reptiles ; others were flapping heavily 

 about over the river with their long legs stretched out behind 

 them like rudders, and with their long necks bent double like 

 a letter " S " : still others were perched in grotesque attitudes 

 among the topmost limbs of the tall trees that grow on the 

 banks of the river. While attempting to alight on a dead 

 limb in the top of a tall tree, one heron lost its balance and 

 came near falling. The clumsy bird soon regained its equilib- 

 rium, but its efforts to regain the coveted perch were grotesque 

 and comical in the extreme. After much awkward flapping of 

 wings and craning of neck, however, the ungainly bird finally 

 succeeded in securing a firm foothold on the dead limb, much 

 to the relief of us spectators. As we passed by a strip of 



