1906 ] Wheelock, Nesting Habits of the Green Heron. 433 



The same group of pines containing the heron nests was the 

 home of numbers of Bronzed Grackles. In as much as the latter 

 arrive from the south nearly two months earlier and nest two 

 weeks earlier than the former, we wondered that, with all the 

 forest from which to choose a nesting site, the herons should will- 

 ingly come into such close proximity to disagreeable neighbors. 

 The grackles were quarrelsome, thieving, noisy, and the only 

 possible advantage the herons could hope to derive from them 

 would be the loud alarm always given by them at the approach 

 of danger. A ' lookout ' on the top of the tallest pine scanned the 

 country far and wide, and never once did we succeed in sneaking 

 up unseen. 



While we were still a hundred feet from the heronry, warned 

 possibly by the outcry of this sentinel, the adult herons with one 

 accord deserted, taking up their watch in distant trees, and only 

 one of them all seeming to show any special interest in our pro- 

 ceedings. This one, whether male or female I know not, flew 

 over the nest tree occasionally while we were photographing the 

 young, evidently wishing to feed them. That they were not 

 suffering from neglect in that line was evidenced by the "un- 

 swallowing" they did, one of them disgorging a fat crayfish four 

 inches long and seemingly much too large a morsel for the size of 

 the bird's throat. Afterward, when I viewed the sesophagus of 

 a young heron, dissected and 'preserved,' I wondered still more 

 how so much breakfast ever passed down so small a tube. The 

 jointed lower mandible and pouch like throat could explain the 

 attempt to swallow it, but the tiny tesophagus, scarcely one fourth 

 of an inch in diameter, would seem to effectually bar its further 

 progress. The four young herons as we approached stretched 

 up to their tallest extent, which was about twelve inches, and 

 'stiffened,' swaying slightly from side to side with excitement 

 like a lot of snakes. We thought catching a photo in this pose 

 would be an easy task but an attempt to get nearer them resulted in 

 a general exodus. Far out on the branches they scrambled, out 

 of reach and as safe as though a mile away so far as my ability 

 to follow was concerned. But a photo we must have, so we went 

 on to the -next nest. Here the birds were a day or so younger 

 and the nest was in a better position for photographing. 



