Birds of Indiana. 657 



ported as breeding on the "Great Miami." (Langdon, revised list, 

 Joiirn. Cin. Soc. Nat. Hist., January, 1879, p. 183.) They usually 

 breed in communities of greater or less size, known as "heronries," 

 but are occasionally found erecting solitary nests. Mr. C. E. Aiken, 

 well known for his observations on the birds of Colorado, as well as of 

 this State and Illinois, has very kindly written me his experience at a 

 heronry known as "Crane Heaven," occupying thirty or forty acres 

 along the Kankakee Eiver some twenty miles above Water Valley. He 

 was there in May, 1886. "The locality is a timbered belt, the ground 

 being submerged with twelve to eighteen inches of water at the time. 

 At our approach, upon the discharge of a gun, the birds arose with 

 a noise like thunder and hovered in hundreds above the tree tops. 

 They were of three species — the Great Blue Herons (A. herodias) and 

 the Black-crowned Night Herons (N. nycticorax ncevius) comprising 

 the majority; but the beautiful white plumage of the American Egret 

 (A. egretta) was conspicuous through the feathered cloud, and these 

 birds were quite numerous. 



"Nearly all the trees throughout the area were loaded with nests, 

 those of the two species first named being found upon the same tree, 

 but the latter birds appeared to build in little groups by themselves. 

 We did not climb to examine the nests, but most of them appeared 

 to contain young birds. Many of the trees were dead, apparently from 

 the effects of the birds building and roosting upon them." 



Mr. T. H. Ball informs me of two heronries in Lake County, one, 

 called "Cranetown," in the southeastern corner of the county, and 

 another in sections 5 and 6, north of the Brown Ditch — township 32, 

 range 7, west. 



Mr. Euthven Deane has given me some observations on a heronry 

 called "Crane Heaven" near English Lake, which, March 18, 1894, 

 was occupied almost exclusively by Great Blue Herons, though quite 

 a number of Black-crowned Night Herons always breed there. 



Mr. J, G. Parker, Jr., informs me of a large colony on the Kankakee 

 Eiver nine miles south of Kouts, Ind. On April 14, 1894, he reports 

 the heronry filled with birds nesting. 



Mr. E. B. Trouslot, April 25, 1887, wrote me of a visit recently made 

 by him from Valparaiso to "Cranetown," in Jasper County. There 

 were, he said, thousands of Great Blue Herons nesting, and he saw 

 one American Egret. 



Mr. Chas. Dury also speaks of their building at English Lake. 



Mr. L. T. Meyer, in 1886, wrote me of their building in the Kanka- 

 kee Marsh in great numbers, nesting in communities. 



42— Geol. 



