PAPERS ON ZOOLOGY AND PHYSIOLOGY 331 
mores that grew in a group close together. Each tree had 
from six to a dozen or more houses in it. In the summer time 
when all were at home, including the babies, the population was 
100 or more. They were all fishermen and adhered strictly to 
business. They were peaceful people, minded their own busi- 
ness, bothered no one and asked only to be let alone. Here they 
had lived from time immemorial. It was a picturesque sight 
to stand on High point to the south and look over the inter- 
vening trees and see this village of tree dwellers in the tops 
of those giants of the forest towering over all the rest of the 
woods. 
Like some others of our citizens the people of this village 
all journeyed to the south in the autumn and remained there 
through the winter time, but their domiciles remained and were 
conspicuous objects in the landscape for long distances around. 
They were an industrious people, laboring day and night 
when the appetites of an hungry young family demanded much 
food of fish, crayfish and frogs. The Indians probably respected 
them and passed them by without molestation and so did the 
early pioneer hunters and farmers. 
But this is a world of change. All things mundane must 
have an ending and so did this ancient village of Cranetown. 
The increase of population, the clearing of the forests and 
the introduction of modern firearms sounded their doom. 
One time a part of us went down into this wood one bright 
moonlight night to cut an early found bee tree. Passing under 
Cranetown which was at a time when the young ones were 
nearly big enough to leave their nests, we were surprised at a 
great commotion raised by the three or four dogs that had 
accompanied us. Approaching we found them surrounding a 
great blue heron who was then on the ground with a broken 
wing. He was making a valiant fight for his life, stabbing at 
the dogs with his long dagger-like bill and every hit brought 
2 howl. We called off the dogs and on examining the ground 
under the trees found a number of dead immature young birds. 
Up in the nests in the tops of the trees other young birds 
were uttering hunger-distressed cries which plainly said, “We 
are deserted and very hungry.” 
