230 THE BIRDS ABOUT Us. 



light. It is both migratory and resident in the Mid- 

 dle States, but the number that remain during the 

 winter is comparatively small, and these overstaying 

 birds are rather forlorn creatures if the weather is 

 very cold. As they sit huddled together loosely 

 wrapped in their feathers, with shoulders up and 

 heads down and their bills quite out of sight, they 

 might readily be mistaken for inanimate objects were 

 it not that they have a very keen sense of hearing 

 and move if you come very near the trees in which 

 they are resting. That they appreciate warmth is 

 shown by the fact that in winter these birds will feed 

 at noon when the warm springs have a flood of 

 noontide sunshine resting over them, and will stay 

 at home during the night, this being reversed in 

 moderate winter weather and during the summer. 



Early in May, in days gone by, these birds col- 

 lected by hundreds at the heronries and nest building 

 commenced ; now single nests are usually found, al- 

 though we often see ten or more birds togther about 

 their feeding-grounds. In 1860 there was an enor- 

 mous heronry near the Delaware River, where a large 

 creek enters it in Burlington County, New Jersey. 

 This was disturbed and the birds so harassed by boys 

 stealing the eggs that early in the summer the spot 

 was suddenly and entirely deserted, and since then, 

 in that vicinity, the birds that still come year after 

 year build their nests far apart, and seem in all their 

 nesting habits to have instituted a complete change. 



The night-heron feeds principally upon fish, but 

 has also a fancy for salamanders, for I have twice 

 seen them on a wooded hill-side near the springs, 



