HERONS, STORKS, IBISES, ETC. 



times placed in low bushes, at others in grassy marshes. The eggs 

 number from three to five. They are plain blue in the Glossy Ibis, 

 greenish white with chocolate markings, in the White Ibis. 



The Storks are largely Old World birds, only three of the some 

 twenty known species inhabiting the Western Hemisphere. But one 

 of these is found regularly north of the Rio Grande, the so-called Wood 

 Ibis which is abundant in southern Florida. It lives in flocks and 

 builds a nest of sticks usually in cypress trees, often forty feet from 

 the ground, laying two or three white eggs. When flying the neck is 

 extended. It progresses by alternate flapping and sailing and occa- 

 sionally soars high overhead in circles, like a Vulture. 



The Bitterns and Herons unlike our other long-legged wading birds, 

 fly with a fold in the neck. They belong in two subfamilies, the 

 Botaurina and ArdeinfE, respectively. The Bitterns are usually soli- 

 tary birds inhabiting grassy or reedy marshes where their colors har- 

 monize with their surroundings and render them difficult to see. The 

 American Bittern nests on the ground and lays three to five pale 

 brownish eggs. The Least Bittern usually weaves a platform nest 

 of reeds among rushes growing in the water and lays four or five bluish 

 white eggs. 



Herons feed along the shore 1 and are consequently more often 

 seen than Bitterns. With the exception of the Green Heron and the 

 Yellow-crowned Night Heron, which usually nest in isolated pairs, our 

 species gather in colonies to nest. Several hundred pairs occupying 

 a limited area in some wooded or bushy swamp to which, when undis- 

 turbed, they return year after year. 



Herons build a rude platform nest of sticks, sometimes placing it in 

 bushes, sometimes in the tallest trees, and at others on the ground or 

 beds of reeds in marshes. The eggs are greenish blue in color and 

 usually four in number. It is among those Herons, which in nesting 

 time are adorned with delicate plumes or aigrettes, that the greatest 

 ravages of the millinery hunter have been made. Attacking these 

 birds when they have gathered on the nesting ground, they are not 

 permitted to rear their young and the species is thus exterminated 

 branch and root. 



The voice of Herons is a harsh squawk varying in depth of tone with 

 the size of the bird. 



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