Notes on the Birds. 329 
But the old Maple Swamp, like most of the swamps and woodland ponds 
which a half century ago afforded a suitable environment for so many 
species of the native fauna and flora, now alas! all but extinct, and which 
added so much of real interest to the nature lover, is now a thing of the past. 
It has been ditched and drained; the attractive forest, underbrush, and 
aquatic plants haye given way to rectangular fields of corn and cabbage. The 
zesthetic has succumbed to the utilitarian. There will be more corn and 
hogs but less of beauty and the appreciation thereof. 
The same is true of the uplands. The great forests are gone; they have 
been cut off and there remain only here and there occasional 20, 30 or 40- 
acre wood-lots, pitifully mutilated and crippled remnants of the once mighty 
forests, the most magnificent hardwood forests the world has eyer seen, 
which clothed practically the entire state of Indiana 75 years ago. 
The only other heronry which I knew in Carroll County was in Adams 
Township, near the north line of the county, about six miles north of the 
Wabash River and about the same distance east of the Tippecanoe. I never 
visited this rookery in the breeding season, but I have, when driving by in 
the winters of 1883 to 1885, seen the great nests, nearly a hundred of them, 
in the tops of the maple, cottonwood, and swamp ash trees. 
Definite dates for Carroll County are as follows: June 12, 1882, many 
at the Maple Swamp; May 21, 1883, again at the Maple Swamp where many 
were seen; April 8, 1884, day snowy, one seen flying north just west of 
Delphi; February 14, 1885, while driving from Pittsburg to Delphi in the 
evening I saw one flying up the Wabash, the day being cold, the snow very 
deep, making excellent sleighing, and the river was covered with ice except 
in a few places; March first, one seen near David Musselman’s trying to 
reach Deer Creek in the face of a strong northwest wind; and March 18, 
saw one on Deer Creek east of Camden. 
In Vigo County I never knew of any rookeries, but there were doubtless 
some small breeding colonies along the Wabash. A few solitary individuals 
might be seen along the river any day between March and November. 
In Monroe County, which has no ponds or considerable streams, the Great 
Blue Heron, like all other waders and water birds, is not at all common. 
One might be seen now and then along Beanblossom Creek or Salt Creek ; 
noted March 28, 1888. 
44, HeRopIAS EGRETTA (Gmelin). EGRET. (196) 
Rare; probably only a fall visitant. As is well known, this and other 
species of herons are apt to wander some distance from their regular hab- 
itat in the fall, and it may be that all those we have seen in Vigo County 
in late summer and early fall had wandered up from lower down the 
Wabash River. Each fall from two or three to a half dozen were seen 
along the river both above and below Terre Haute. Greenfield Bayou, 10 
miles below Terre Haute, was a favorite place. One was shot on Deer Creek 
near Camden, Carroll County, August first, 1884, by my friend Frank C. 
Porter, of Camden. Years ago, small flocks of six to ten were occasionally 
seen flying north in the spring and a few were seen each fall from July to 
September. 
I have seen Egrets occasionally along the creeks in Monroe County, but 
only in spring. One was killed near Bloomington, April 10, 1857. 
