Vol XVI "I Pearson, Some North Carolina Birds. 247 



cypress and willow trees at a distance from the ground varying from 

 ten to twenty-five feet. Two nests of the Night Heron were found ; one 

 containing four slightly incubated eggs, the other two fresh ones. Three 

 pairs of the birds were seen and a female which was shot contained in 

 her oviduct an egg which probably would have been deposited in a few 

 days. Mav 25 a little colony of six pairs of Night Herons was found on 

 Great Lake near Newbern. All six of these nests were placed in a very 

 thick, stunted cypress tree, standing out in the lake some fifty yards 

 from the shore. None of the branches of the tree exceeded a yard in 

 length and their outer ends were well draped with long gray moss, thus 

 effectually screening the nests from view. The tree whose top reached 

 but fifteen feet above the water, was capped by an Osprey's nest which 

 contained three young. All the Herons' nests were occupied either by 

 eggs or young birds, the number in a nest being four in each instance, 

 except one nest which contained three fresh eggs. 



In four other rookeries of Herons subsequently visited at points fur- 

 ther south. Night Herons were seen, but in each case not over six or 

 eight pairs were found breeding in any one colony. I am informed on 

 good authority that quite a large colony of these birds have their breed- 

 ing grounds in a swamp on Harker's Island, at the lower end of Core 

 Sound. 



Ardea tricolor ruficollis. Louisiana Heron. — On April 20, at Cape 

 Hatteras, while standing on the sand at the very point of the cape, a 

 Louisiana Heron was close] v observed as it flew directly overhead, 

 making for the shore and laboring with a strong southwest wind. A 

 most thorough search of the swamps and ponds in the neighborhood 

 failed to reveal any colony of nesting birds, and no other individuals 

 were met with until reaching Beaufort. 



At the upper end of a small mill-pond a mile or more long, located in 

 Carteret County, about fifteen miles from Beaufort, there was found a 

 small but very interesting colony of Herons. Two dozen nests of the 

 Louisiana Heron were noted here and the birds could be obtained with 

 but little trouble. At this date many of the eggs had hatched but there 

 were yet several sets of fresh ones to be seen. 



Between this point and South Carolina three other places were visited 

 where these birds were nesting. In one of the larger rookeries in Bruns- 

 wick County there were on the first of June fully 500 pairs of breeding 

 birds of this species 



During July and early August young Louisiana Herons and their 

 parents come out of the fresh-water swamps in numbers and may be 

 seen any day feeding, singly or in small flocks, along the marshes 

 between Beaufort and Southport. It seems a little strange that so con- 

 spicuous and common a bird as this should never before have been 

 mentioned in the lists of North Carolina birds. 



Guara alba. White Ibis.— The fiat marshes which line the banks of 

 North River, three to seven miles northeast of Beaufort, are the feeding 



