452 THE GREAT BLUE HERON. 



the long ornamental feathers, and having the neck 

 spotted. 



As this bird rises out of the water, it seems immense, and 

 requires many strong beats of its wings before obtaining 

 an easy flight. Once well on the wing, it moves majestically, 

 with a firm and regular stroke of the great wings, the neck 

 folded into a big lump, and the long legs extended behind 

 like an immense tail. Occupying, in summer, " entire tem- 

 perate North America," it ornaments the landscape of Nova 

 Scotia and New Brunswick about as commonly as that of 

 the Middle States, and occasionally puts in an appearance 

 even as far north as Hudson's Bay; thus differing from the 

 Herons in general, which incline to the tropics and warm, 

 temperate regions. 



The food of herodias is fish, for the most part, but may 

 consist of frogs, mice and insects. Commonly breeding in 

 communities, sometimes singly, however, the nests are gen- 

 erally placed in the tops of tall trees, often in swamps 

 almost or quite inaccessible, and often in immense numbers. 

 Sometimes the communities of nests are placed in pine 

 forests some miles from any swamp or body of water, or 

 they may be near, or even on the ground. Along the Col- 

 orado River, where there is a lack of the large trees neces- 

 sary to support the immense bulk of the nest, these Her- 

 ons breed on the ledges of the gigantic walls of the can- 

 ons. In the Southern States Audubon often saw them on 

 cactuses. 



The nest, some two feet in diameter, is of the platform 

 style, the lower part of sticks, the surface of a rather thick 

 bed of grasses, weeds and mosses. The eggs, two or three, 

 are about 2.50x1-50, elliptical, clear pale-greenish. These 

 Herons often fly immense distances to their feeding grounds, 

 and having selected certain places, seem to adhere to them 



