262 The Green Heron 



sink-holes, a pair of Green Herons, long years ago, built the loose plat- 

 form of twigs which served them as a nest. Day after day, when I 

 crept cautiously to the brink and looked down, I could see one of them 

 sitting on the green eggs forty feet beneath me. The still water of the 

 sink below the nest was never ruffled by a passing breeze, and from its 

 depths frogs and small turtles climbed to projecting bits of rock, and 

 added touches of life to the weird scene. 



A mile away, in a small water-oak growing in an abandoned field, 

 two of us found another nest the succeeding year ; possibly it was built 

 by some of the young hatched in the deep shadows of the sink. There 

 was no way to approach this nest without the birds discovering the intru- 

 der long before the tree was reached. Twice we 

 Intruders visited the spot, and each time the parent-bird that was 



at home departed hastily. It is not good to disturb 

 birds too frequently when they have the care of their eggs or young, so 

 we did not go near the tree again until the young had flown. Although 

 the nest was so frail that one could see the eggs through the twigs from 

 the ground below, it must have been securely built, for much of it was 

 still in position the next spring when we again went to the old field, 

 hoping that the Green Herons might still be using the tree as a nesting- 

 place. 



In the edge of the lake, near by, grew thickly clustered many tall 

 buttonwood bushes, in which, each April, were built the nests of a colony 

 of Boat-tailed Crackles those large, shiny blackbirds common in the 

 far South. One spring a pair of Green Herons made their nest here 

 and, despite the great noise and clatter which always prevails in a black- 

 bird colony, they appeared to find the situation quite to their liking, for 

 later the young were seen with their parents along the shore. 



If you should chance some summer to visit the farm of Alden H. 

 Hadley, in Indiana, he would probably take you out to his large apple 

 orchard and show you six or eight nests of the Green Herons. For many 

 years this little colony has gathered there every season when the birds 

 return to the North after the snows have gone. Near by flows a small 

 stream, along which the birds gather their food, chiefly by night. Up 

 and down the stream, across fields and through the woods, the birds fol- 

 low its winding course, collecting the minnows, frogs, grasshoppers, and 

 various water-insects and crustaceans which they delight to eat. 



Perhaps a more striking example of this bird's tendency to rear its 

 young near the abode of man is shown by the fact that for several years 

 in Pelham Bay Park, within the limits of Greater New 

 York City, a little colony of four or five pairs have 

 selected an old apple-orchard in which to make their 

 nests and hatch their young. 



Thus we may see that the Green Heron has a wide range of suitable 

 places to choose from for nest-building. Often the nest is far from any 

 pond or lake, and frequently it is found singly, with no other heron's 

 nest near. Yet this is by no means always the case. Go to the great 



