496 Gunthorp, Heronry on Lake Cormorant, Minn. [o"t. 



of the nest, or was simply an accumulation of mud brought to the 

 nest on the feet of the parent birds from their frequent trips to the 

 marshy shores of the lake, is not clear. The solid nature of the 

 structure of the Herons' nests is shown by the fact that a fifty-foot 

 fall was apparently not able to damage them in the least. 



The remains of different species of fish were on the ground under 

 the trees together with parts of crayfishes. In regard to what 

 Herons eat, Barrows 1 says, "The Blue Heron feeds mainly on 

 fish and frogs, but also eats immense numbers of crayfish, small 

 snakes, salamanders, insects (among them grasshoppers), meadow 

 mice, and almost anything of an animal nature. So far as we know 

 it never eats vegetable substances of any kind." On the other 

 hand, Wilson 2 states (Vol. 2, p. 448) that it "also eats the seeds 

 of that species of nymphce usually called splatterdocks, so abundant 

 along our freshwater ponds and rivers." When disturbed, the 

 birds disgorge partly digested fish and other food. Heads and 

 backbones of fish were numerous under the occupied trees, showing 

 that the larger animals are torn to pieces and the bones picked by 

 the young birds. This refuse accounts for the presence of numer- 

 ous carrion beetles found under sticks and logs under the heronry. 



A careful survey of the heronry at Lake Cormorant was made 

 and is here recorded because it is located where it will in all proba- 

 bility be protected for years to come, and thus it will be possible 

 to record the future growth of the colony accurately, and so we 

 shall be able to form some estimate of the status of the Great Blue 

 Heron in Minnesota and the Northwest. 



' Barrows, Walter Bradford. 'Michigan Bird Life,' Lansing, Mich., 1912. 

 2 Wilson, Alexander, 'American Ornithology,' 3 Vols., New York, 1S77. 



