252 Cameron, Nesting of Great Blue Heron. [july 



Some thirty thousand persons, it is estimated, viewed the fire, 

 and a large number of them saw the birds, but probably very few 

 appreciated the opportunity that was offered them of looking behind 

 the dark curtain which so persistently shrouds one of nature's 

 greatest mysteries, or realized that what they saw was, literally 

 as well as figuratively, 'some light on night migration.' 



NESTING OF THE GREAT BLUE HERON IN 

 MONTANA. 



BY E. S. CAMERON. 



Plates IV and V. 



Since living near the Yellowstone I have often wondered where 

 the Great Blue Herons (Ardea herodias) nested which flew up and 

 down the river, or stood motionless on the sandbars intercepting 

 its brown flood. The different ferrymen, on being questioned, 

 said the birds passed and repassed daily, but could supply no infor- 

 mation as to their breeding haunts. Mr. A. C. Gifford of Fallon 

 informed me that he recollected when there were twenty nests in 

 some cottonwoods about two miles below his property, but was 

 doubtful if herons bred there in recent years, and Mr. Dan Bowman 

 had known of one nest on the Powder River in a Cottonwood close 

 to his ranch. These were my only records. Accordingly, on May 

 30 my wife and I rode to the grove indicated by Mr. Gifford and 

 made a thorough investigation, which proved a task of some diffi- 

 culty on account of the thick underbrush of wild roses, willows, 

 and bulberry bushes, concealing regular pitfalls, through which a 

 horse could scarcely force its way. Part of the wood was made 

 into an island by a small branch of the river (called here a slough), 

 and two pairs of Blue-winged Teal, evidently nesting, were seen, 



