162 Fish and Game Warden. [Bull. No. 1. 



they feed upon fish almost exclusively. The ponds are full of 

 fish, and it is easy for the herons to catch them in the shallow 

 water near the shores. 



A flock of about fifty Black-crowned Night herons visited 

 the Hatchery grounds one night early in September two years 

 age, at a time when we had one of our bass ponds partly 

 drained. Some of the birds fed upon the young bass during 

 the night to such an extent that they became so full that it 

 apparently made them sick. They spit or regurgitated many 

 of the fish that they had swallowed. Next morning we found 

 several small piles of fish that they had spit up. The number 

 of fish in these little piles or heaps ranged from nineteen to 

 thirty-seven, and the fish measured from two and one-half to 

 four inches in length. 



We are friendly to the herons and do not like to take their 

 lives. We try to drive them away by shooting at them. We 

 frequently take long-range shots at them with No. 10 or 12 

 shot. The Night herons and the Great Blue herons, as a rule, 

 can be driven away without much trouble. It sometimes be- 

 comes necessary to "burn" the bittern and the Little Green 

 heron with fine shot two or three times before they will take 

 the hint and leave. 



Fish Ducks. 



The mergansers, or fish ducks, are very destructive to fish. 

 Fortunately they only appear for a short time during the 

 spring and fall migration. They are usually wild and can be 

 put to flight without much trouble by firing a few shots. How- 

 ever, they sometimes come and settle on the ponds at night 

 and do considerable damage before they can be frightened 

 away. We took a sucker I21/2 inches long from the stomach of 

 an American merganser that we killed several years ago while 



Mergansers or fish durks. From specimens in l\ansas University Museum. 

 To left, the Hooded merganser; to right, the American merganser. 



