:ii2 



stands erecr, (he loose and sliag<;;y plumage, wliich be- 

 fore seemed ill adapted to his body, now tits nc^atly and 

 closely as he carefully walks to the extremity of the 

 dead and decorticated limb on which he has been doz- 

 ing and suddenly, with a loud squawk, launches him- 

 self into the air, uttering- at short intervals his harsh 

 note, and rising above tlie trees of the forest, he speed- 

 ily visits some favorite mill-dam. These birds arrive 

 in Pennsylvania about the 25(h of April and remain 

 until the latter part of September, They seem to re- 

 pair at once on their arrival in spring to localities 

 where they are accusto-med to breed. After the 

 breeding season, i. e., about the middle of August, 

 when the young are amply able to take care of tluMu- 

 selves. these birds fiusake their nesting places and be- 

 come quite i)lentifnl along the rivers, streams and 

 busily marshes. 



THEY BREED IN COI^ONIES. 



The Night Heion rarely, if ever breeds singly, but 

 always in large companies. I have visited, on differ 

 ent occasions, two of tliese breeding resorts and found 

 from twenty-five to seventy-five nests, which like those 

 of the other species, were built c.f sticks and placed 

 usually in high trees. The eggs three or four in num- 

 ber are a y)ale sea-green color and measure about 2 

 by H inches. In Berks county, near Blue Rock, foi- 

 many years, this s]>ecies annually reared their young 

 in the edge of a large woods alcng the margin of which 

 was a good-sized stream. In this place many of the 

 nests were built in a bunch of saplings, some tifieen or 

 twenty foet higli and so small in diamoler that it was 

 imJ^ossib1e to climb them. AVilson has very properl.v 

 said that the noise of the O'ld and voung in one of these 



