142 
WILD WINGS 
North, also breeding', and soon emerged into a more open 
area where the trees grew more sparsely and not so tall. At 
every rod of progress dozens and scores of Egrets and of 
the smaller, dark-colored Little Blue Herons, with numbers 
of the bluish but white-breasted Louisiana Herons, kept 
springing into the air. For nearly half a mile we kept on, 
and it was the same story. Then, as the abundance began 
to lessen, we returned to the heart of the rookery to spend 
the day. 
The two small herons nested quite low down, the former 
even in clumps of bushes, so that it was comparatively easy 
to secure photographs of the eggs and young in these nests. 
It was not so with the Egrets, which nested high in the 
cypresses. Though I had no climbing-irons, I finally ascended 
one slender tree to an Egret’s nest about forty feet up. There 
were three bluish eggs in it, but it was situated in the top¬ 
most fork, with only a slender, rotten stub above, and could 
not be photographed. One other to which I managed to 
climb had three rather small young. Though similarly situ¬ 
ated, the stub above was a trifle stouter, and I managed, with 
some trepidation, to screw up my small camera, replace the 
refractory young many a time in the nest, hang on with 
my eyelids in the gusts of wind, and make some successful 
exposures. 
The Egrets were quite timid. Perched on high stubs, 
singlv or in small parties, they would crane their necks at 
the approaching boat and fly all too soon. If one happened 
to perch lower down and we were able to aj^proach it closely 
under cover, it would be off the instant we showed ourselves 
and before I could get an unobstructed view with the camera. 
So photography, it must be admitted, was difficult and vex¬ 
atious. 
But it was a wonderful sight, well worth travelling far to 
