188 STORIES OF BIRD LIFE 



eight feet above the water. Usually they were not over 

 eight or ten inches across, and often were so frail that the 

 four or five blue eggs they contained could be counted 

 through the structure from beneath. So closely do the 

 nests and eggs of these birds resemble that it was only by 

 hiding and watching until the owners came that we were 

 able to distinguish between them. 



In many cases the eggs had hatched. The young blues, 

 covered with white down, were very pretty creatures. 

 When grown their feathers are white, and not until the 

 summer of the second year does the coat of blue appear. 

 In some cases the young are said never to acquire the blue 

 covering, but go on through life as white birds. The young 

 Louisianas resembled their parents in color; only, of 

 course, they wore suits of soft down instead of feathers. 



In some tall trees at one side of the heronry the great 

 blue herons had built their large platforms of nests on the 

 horizontal limbs high in air, and their great babies in a 

 dozen or more places were seen standing gazing silently off 

 through the forest as though absorbed in thought. So 

 large and fine looking are the great blues that my friend 

 called them the ' ' kings ' ' of the city. The splendid plumes 

 of their heads and backs, together with their dignity of 

 bearing, surely bore out the comparison. 



In one place two pairs of quite different herons, together 



