° 1919 J Gunthorp, Heronry on Lake Cormorant, Minn. 493 



and there an occasional inlet is filled with water lilies. As the 

 lakes are well stocked with fish, these numerous marshy spots 

 form excellent feeding grounds for the shore waders. The sur- 

 rounding country is rolling, and was once covered with a forest 

 of elm, hard maple, and birch, with an occasional oak. At the 

 present time a considerable portion of the land has been cleared 

 and is under cultivation, the woods being confined mostly to the 

 lake shores. All the salable timber was taken out some forty 

 years ago, and as a result few large trees are seen, most of them 

 ranging up to sixteen or eighteen inches in diameter. 



Less than a quarter of a mile from the junction of the two western 

 lakes, near the center of a heavily wooded knoll, stands a group of 

 larger trees in which the Great Blue Herons have built their nests, 

 forming a heronry of no mean size. These birds have been here 

 at least ten years, according to farmers living in the neighborhood, 

 and from all available information are increasing in numbers. A 

 few years ago their nests were confined to a large elm (4) l near the 

 south end of the heronry, but they have gradually spread, both 

 north and south, from this original tree until now they occupy 

 fourteen trees, the extreme limits of which cover approximately 

 two hundred eighty-five feet in length and one hundred feet in 

 width. The State laws in Minnesota give adequate protection 

 to the Herons, as they not only impose a heavy fine for the destruc- 

 tion of the birds, but also specify that trees containing Herons' 

 nests shall not be cut down. But besides the State protection, 

 it is fortunate that the land on which the heronry stands is held 

 by a group of gentlemen living in North Dakota, who use it for a 

 summer home, and who are very much interested in preserving the 

 woods and its life in as near a wild state as possible. 



The opportunity came to the writer to make a survey of the 

 heronry during the month of August, 1918, while spending a short 

 time camping on the neighboring lake. Several .trips were made 

 to the trees containing the nests, but, owing to the lateness of the 

 season, only four young birds were seen in their nests. The large 

 size of the heronry was not suspected by the owners of the land, 

 their explorations having taken them no farther than the first 



1 Numbers in parentheses refer to trees shown in accompanying diagram. 



