220 Tue Birps Asout Us. 
and all needed information can be had from scores 
of books. 
Naturally, the whole tribe of herons are disposed 
to be sociable, and as willing to frequent a mill-pond 
as the retired and wooded banks of far-off rivers. 
All they ask is not to be disturbed. The night- 
herons have been known to lodge in trees in a large 
town, and this uncommon occurrence might be a 
common one but for the positively brutal indifference 
of the average man, who will permit these inoffensive 
and beautiful birds to be shot at, even if he does not 
indulge in the sport (?) himself. There should be 
an almost prohibitive tax on the modern breech- 
loader. I have seen a man deliberately shoot at an 
overflying heron, just to see if his gun would carry 
that far. Fortunately, it did not. If I had tried my 
gun on him in the same way, there would have been 
a great rumpus; but the bird, of the two creatures, 
was much the more valuable. 
It is not improbable that our blue, white, and night- 
herons and the bittern would all become as familiar 
as the storks are in Europe if they had the same im- 
munity from persecution granted to the fish-hawk. 
I say this, because experimentation in a slight way 
has gone far to demonstrate it; and it is well known 
that birds learn very quickly where they are free from 
annoyance and where subjected to it. The migratory 
birds that nest in a locality with comfort during one 
season will be pretty sure to return the next; but rob 
them of their eggs or young and they will give the 
place a wide berth thereafter. 
In some respects the Roseate Spoon-bill is the 
