142 WILD WINGS 



North, also breeding, and soon emerged into a more open 

 area where the trees grew more sparsely and not so tall. At 

 every rod of progress dozens and scores of Egrets and of 

 the smaller, dark-colored Little Blue Herons, with numbers 

 of the bluish but white-breasted Louisiana Herons, kept 

 springing into the air. For nearly half a mile we kept on, 

 and it was the same story. Then, as the abundance began 

 to lessen, we returned to the heart of the rookery to spend 

 the day. 



The two small herons nested quite low down, the former 

 even in clumps of bushes, so that it was comparatively easy 

 to secure photographs of the eggs and young in these nests. 

 It was not so with the Egrets, which nested high in the 

 cypresses. Though I had no climbing-irons, I finally ascended 

 one slender tree to an Egret's nest about forty feet up. There 

 were three bluish eggs in it, but it was situated in the top- 

 most fork, with only a slender, rotten stub above, and could 

 not be photographed. One other to which I managed to 

 climb had three rather small young. Though similarly situ- 

 ated, the stub above was a trifle stouter, and I managed, with 

 some trepidation, to screw up my small camera, replace the 

 refractory young many a time in the nest, hang on with 

 my eyelids in the gusts of wind, and make some successful 

 exposures. 



The Egrets were quite timid. Perched on high stubs, 

 singly or in small parties, they would crane their necks at 

 the approaching boat and fly all too soon. If one happened 

 to perch lower down and we were able to approach it closely 

 under cover, it would be off the instant we showed ourselves 

 and before I could get an unobstructed view with the camera. 

 So photography, it must be admitted, was difficult and vex- 

 atious. 



But it was a wonderful sight, well worth travelling far to 



