544 THE GREAT BLUE HERON. 



never manifested the least animosity towards each other. One of them which accidentally 

 walked before the coops in which the Blue Herons were, thrust its bill between the bars, and 

 transfixed the head of one of these birds, so that it was instantaneously killed. 



"When we arrived at Charleston, four of them were still alive. They were taken to my 

 friend, John Bachman, who was glad to see them. He kept a pair, and offered the other to 

 our mutual friend, Dr. Samuel Wilson, who accepted them, but soon afterwards gave them to 

 Dr. Gibbes, of Columbia College, merely because they had killed a number of ducks. My 

 friend Bachman kept two of these birds for many months ; but it was difficult for him to pro- 

 cure fish enough for them, as they s'wallowed a bucketful of mullets in a few minutes, each 

 devouring about a gallon of these fishes. They betook themselves to roosting in a beautiful 

 arbor in his garden, where at night they looked, with their pure white plumage, like beings 

 of another world. It is a curious fact, that the points of their bills, of which an inch at least 

 had been broken, grew again, and were as regularly shaped at the end of six months as if 

 nothing had happened to them. In the evening, or early in the morning, they would fre- 

 quently set, like pointer dogs, at moths which hovered over the flowers, and with a well-directed 

 stroke of their bill seize the fluttering insect and instantly swallow it. On many occasions, they 

 also struck at chickens, grown fowls, and ducks, which they would tear up and devour. Once, 

 a cat which was asleep in the sunshine, on the wooden steps of the veranda, was pinned through 

 the body to the boards, and killed by one of them. At last, they began to pursue the younger 

 children of my worthy friend, who therefore ordered them to be killed. One of them was 

 beautifully mounted by my assistant, Mr. Henry Ward, and is now in the museum of 

 Charleston. Dr. Gibbes was obliged to treat his in the same manner, and I afterwards saw 

 one of them in his collection. 



"Mr. Egan kept for abont a year one of these birds, which he raised from the nest, and 

 which, when well grown, was allowed to ramble along the shores of Indian Key in quest of 

 food. One of the wings had been cut, and the bird was known to all the resident inhabitants, 

 but was at last shot by some Indian hunter, who had gone there to dispose of a collection of 

 sea-shells. 



" Some of the Herons feed on the berries of certain trees during the latter part of autumn 

 and the beginning of winter. Dr. B. Strobel observed the Night Heron eating those of the 

 'Gobolimbo,' late in September, at Key West." 



THE GREAT BLUE HERON (Ardea herodias) is a very familiar bird in the eastern United 

 States. It is common to the whole continent, south to Guatemala and the West Indies. 



It breeds in all these regions, and winters in the South. It is only equalled in its wide 

 distribution on this continent by the Bittern. This is one of the handsomest, most striking, 

 majestic-looking birds in America. In the high inland portions of the country, this Heron is 

 not often seen, but is a constant inhabitant of the Atlantic coast. In the lower parts of New 

 Jersey it breeds in considerable numbers. The breeding-places are usually gloomy cedar 

 swamps, where, upon the tallest trees, the nests are constructed. The Herons generally breed 

 many years in succession in the same places. 



The principal food of this Heron is fish, for which he watches with great patience. His 

 long, lance-shaped bill quickly transfixes his game when opportunity offers. Wilson says of 

 him: "In our vast fens and meadows this stately bird roams at pleasure, feasting on the 

 never-failing magazines of frogs, fishes, insects, etc., with which they abound, and of which 

 he, probably, considers himself the sole lord and proprietor. I have several times seen the 

 bald eagle attack him, and tease him, but whether for sport or to make him disgorge, I do not 

 know. 



"The common Heron of Europe very much resembles this bird, which might, as usual, 

 have probably been ranked as the original stock, of which the present was a mere degen- 

 erated species, were it not that the American is greatly superior in size and weight to the 

 European, the former measuring four feet four inches, and weight of upwards of seven pounds ; 

 the latter, three feet three inches, and weighing rarely more than four pounds. Yet, with the 



