312 



stands erect, the loose and shaggy plumage, which be- 

 fore seemed ill adapted to his body, now fits neatly and 

 closely as he carefully walks to the extremity of the 

 dead and decorticated limb on which he lias been doz- 

 ing and suddenly, witli a loud squawk, launches him- 

 self into the air, uttering at short intervals his harsh 

 note, and i-ising above the trees of the forest, he speed- 

 ily visits some favorite mill-dam. These birds arrive 

 in Pennsylvania about the 25th of April and remain 

 until the latter part of September. They seem to re- 

 pair at once on their arrival in spring to localities 

 where they are accustomed to breed. After the 

 breeding season, i. e., about the middle of August. 

 when the young are amply able to take care of tliem- 

 selves. these birds forsake their nesting places and be- 

 come quite plentiful along the rivers, streams and 

 bushy marshes. 



THEY BREED IN COLONIES. 



The Night Heron rarely, if ever breeds singly, but 

 always in large companies. I have visited, on diiTer 

 ent occasions, two of these breeding resom and found 

 from twenty-five to seventy-five nests, which like those 

 of the other species, were built of sticks and placed 

 usually in high trees. The eggs three or four in num- 

 ber are a pale sea-green color and measure about 2 

 by H inches. In Berks county, near Blue Rock, for 

 many years, this species annually reared their young 

 in the edge of a large woods along the margin of wliii-h 

 was a good-sized stream. In this place many of the 

 nests were built in a bunch of saplings, some fifteen or 

 twenty feet high and so small in diameter that it was 

 impossible to climb them. Wilson has very i)roperl.v 

 said that the noise of the old and young in one of these 



