THE HERONS. 595 



sitting, as also those of the young, which remain in the nest 

 until they are well grown. The three to five eggs, small 

 for the size of the bird, are oval, and of a clear, light blu- 

 ish or greenish tinge. The callow young are reared in the 

 nest with the most lavish feeding. Greedy, gluttonous and 

 sluggish, but exceedingly shy and wary, most species of this 

 group are by no means easy of approach. They are, for 

 the most part, birds of the warmer, or at least of the milder, 

 climates. 



Having treated of the Great Blue Heron, and of the Bit- 

 terns elsewhere, I may mention the Night Heron (Nyctiardea 

 grisea var. ntzvta) as a noticeable- bird in some parts of my 

 locality. Visiting St. Clair Flats in May and June, as my 

 boat glided along the various channels intersecting the par- 

 tially submerged tracts of tall sedges, which appeared like 

 immense fields of ripened grain, I would every now and 

 then put up this fine Heron, as if startled from its feeding 

 grounds. It would generally start before I came within 

 gun-shot, and rising high, would fly far away. On fine 

 sunny mornings there were sometimes dozens together, 

 high in air over the beautiful forests of Dickinson's Island, 

 cutting large and stately circles, wheeling round and round, 

 with scarcely a flap of the wings, after the manner of 

 Buzzards. I could get no clue to their nesting place, but 

 they must have been breeding near by. On the ground, 

 this species has none of the stately movements, or stock- 

 still standing in awaiting its prey, so peculiar to the Herons 

 proper. In the language of Audubon, "it walks in a stoop- 

 ing posture, the neck much retracted, until it sees its prey, 

 when, with a sudden movement, it stretches it out and 

 secures its food." It is a hunter after tadpoles, frogs, fishes, 

 small crustaceans and various water-insects. Like others 

 of its kind, it delights to traverse pools and marshes in the 



