262 Bent, Nesting- Habits of Florida Heiodiones. LA^ril 



There were four nests of the Great White Heron, all on the outer 

 ends of the horizontal branches of the mangroves, over the water 

 and from 10 to 20 feet above it. The nests, much resembling 

 those of the Great Blue Heron, were large flat platforms of large 

 sticks, smoothly lined with coarse twigs and dry mangrove leaves. 

 The only one that I measured was about 35 by 28 inches outside, 

 and the inner cavity about 15 inches in diameter. This nest con- 

 tained two eggs and one young bird, just hatched, covered with 

 white hair-like down. A nest near by held two young, about one 

 quarter grown, and one addled egg. Another nest contained three 

 young birds, about half grown, pure white and very pugnacious ; 

 they bristled up their plumage, squawked and snapped their bills 

 vigorously, while their throats were vibrating rapidly as if panting 

 from fear or excitement ; sometimes they would lie on their sides 

 as if completely exhausted, panting rapidly all the time. They 

 objected decidedly to having their picture taken and refused to 

 pose at all gracefully. 



The most interesting nest of all was about twent}' feet up on the 

 outer end of a leaning red mangrove and the two large white birds 

 in it could be plainly seen from the ground ; they were nearly fully 

 grown, fully feathered and pure white all over, almost indistin- 

 guishable from adults. When I climbed the tree one of them 

 stood up in the nest and posed gracefully in dignified silence, while 

 I took as many photographs as I cared to of the beautiful picture. 



The eggs of the Great White Heron are not distinguishable 

 from those of the Ward's Heron in size, shape or color, though 

 they are somewhat larger than those of the Great Blue Heron ; 

 the only two I collected measured 2.67 by 1.84 and 2.60 by 

 1.8 1 inches ; they are of the usual heron's egg color, pale greenish 

 blue. But the young are always distinguishable by their pure 

 white color from the day they are hatched. 



The Great White Herons are well able to take care of them- 

 selves, as they are very difficult to shoot and not in demand for 

 millinery purposes. Their rookeries are small and too much 

 scattered to offer much temptation to nest robbing negroes. 



