98 DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



and that at least one-third of the birds reported were im- 

 mature specimens of the Little Blue Heron which are white 

 before reaching maturity. The rest apparently were Egrets, 

 and of these only two were of the smaller species — the Snowy 

 Heron. In Massachusetts "white herons" were reported 

 mainly in small groups, ranging in numbers from 3 to IL 

 The shore towns mainly were represented in the reports, such 

 as Edgartown, Wareham, Plymouth, Duxbury, Marshfield, 

 Cohasset, Saugus, Lynn, Rowley, Ipswich and Newburyport. 

 In Connecticut the birds were seen mostly along the shore of 

 the Sound in such towns as Fairfield, Norwalk and Bridgeport, 

 and this was true also of Rhode Island. In Maine several 

 birds were reported from Ogunquit and Scarboro. There were 

 a few reports from the interior; some of these from New 

 York. Eleven birds were reported in Hanson, Massachusetts, 

 3 in Lincoln and 5 in Sudbury. Some of them had disappeared 

 by the 15th of August when the shore-bird season began. 

 Others remained until September. The largest number re- 

 corded at any one time was 20 birds in one flock flying west- 

 ward in September, in Connecticut. This is the greatest 

 movement of white herons from the South that has taken place 

 in recent years. 



October, 1921, 



October as a whole was mild and fair, with a few storms and 

 a few cold nights toward the end of the month. Flowers 

 bloomed here and there nearly all the month as far north as 

 New Brunswick. On the 6th in northern Vermont sheep 

 laurel was in bloom for the second time, and some raspberries 

 had fruited again, while in Boston a horse chestnut tree which 

 had shed its leaves early from the lower branches put out new 

 leaves and blossoms. 



Notwithstanding the mildness of the season the birds went 

 south rapidly, and before the middle of the month most of the 

 northern warblers had passed and were in the southern Atlantic 

 coast States or farther south, and the migration of sparrows 

 had well begun. 



A Large Flight of Night Herons. — On October 4 in Con- 

 necticut a very large flight of Night Herons was noted mov- 

 ing southward. The night of the 4th was cold, and on and 



