130 THE BIRDS OF MAINE 



or six small colonies still breed here, (Knight). Piscataquis; common, 

 breeds, (Homer). Sagadahoc; common fall and spring, (Spinney). Somer- 

 set ; common summer resident, (Morrell). Waldo ; summer resident in limited 

 numbers, (Knight). Washington; common, (Boardman). York; (Adams). 



This species first appears in spring about the first of April 

 along our southern borders on the coast, and may usually be 

 seen near Bangor about April 10. In fall they depart in early 

 October, a few occasionally remaining until the last of the 

 month. Where formerly nesting colonies comprised hundreds 

 of individuals there now remain only tens, and these too seem 

 doomed since the Fish and Game Commissioners, (aided and 

 abetted by the Legislature in their infinite wisdom which they 

 so love to display), have seen fit to remove the protection of 

 the law from these birds, because forsooth they are said to have 

 a hankering for fish. 



Just what do they usually eat.^ Frogs, eels, horn-pouts, 

 pickerel occasionally, suckers, shiners, chubs, black bass, her- 

 ring, water puppies, salamanders and tadpoles are the items I 

 have discovered among their rations. They do not frequent 

 as feeding grounds the spots where trout usually congregate, 

 and I have very strong doubts that they eat trout, except very 

 rarely, let alone consuming them in the vast quantities certain 

 persons have affirmed. 



One hungry mink will make more devastation among the 

 trout in one night than five hundred Herons would think of 

 doing in a year. It is easy to lay all the blame at the Heron's 

 door, though if the Legislature would remove protection from 

 the mink and put a bounty on its extermination trout matters 

 would improve without any change in the habits of the Great 

 Blue Heron. On aesthetic grounds alone these birds should 

 be fully protected. 



The nests are placed in trees, the inland colonies usually 

 nesting in tall hardwood trees in a swamp near a pond or lake. 

 Sometimes as many as ten nests are placed in a tree, this being 

 some lofty yellow birch or other suitable tree. Along the coast 

 among the islands they nest in evergreens, placing the nests 



