130 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 
specimens have been obtained in Ashbridge marsh at Toronto. 
I have no doubt that a few come there to breed and indeed may 
succeed in doing so. Other specimens were taken at Toronto, 
in October, 1899. 
LXXII. ARDEA LINN. 1758. 
194. Great Blue Heron. 
Ardea herodias LINN. 1758. 
Breeds in colonies in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince 
Edward Island, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Assiniboia and 
British Columbia. 
Richardson says that it is only accidental in the North West 
Territories and it seems to be rare in Alaska but likely breeds 
along the Yukon or its branches. 
BREEDING Norres.—Downs reports a large heronry on Mount 
Uniake, Nova Scotia, in the tops of birch trees. A few breed 
near Rustico in Prince Edward Island. There is a large heronry 
on the Quebec side of the Ottawa twenty-fiv > miles below the city 
of Ottawa. Mr. Seton-Thompson in his Lirds of Manitoba, mentions 
the discovery of a heronry on Riding Mountain in Manitoba, at 
the head of Bird Tail Creek, in the summer of 1880, and the 
writer, in June 1894, saw a small one on Skull Creek, a small 
brook that descends from the Cypress Hills in Assiniboia. 
The following description of the heronry on the Ottawa is taken 
from Mcllwraith’s Birds of Ontario, page 110: 
“ The heronry is located in the centre of a thick swamp which, 
on the occasion of our first visit, was so deeply submerged as to 
bar all ingress. On the tgth July, however, the water was but 
knee-deep. After proceeding about half a mile into the swamp, 
our attention was arrested by a peculiar sound which we at first 
thought proceeded from some distant saw-mill or steamer on the 
river. As we advanced, however, the sound resolved itself into 
the most extraordinary noises, some of which resembled the 
yelping of dogs or foxes. On penetrating still deeper into the 
swamp, we discovered that the noises proceeded from an immense 
number of herons, some perched on branches of trees, some 
sitting on nests, and others flying overhead. The uproar was 
