NOTES ON OUR HERONS. 227 



as a rule it is migratory in its habits. As an instance of 

 this I may mention that, during the winter of 1S69-'70, 

 and for several years since, a family of common night- 

 herons have occupied the pine-trees in a large and heavily 

 wooded yard in the city of Trenton, !N". J. In this yard 

 is a pond which is fed by a lively spring, and which, dur- 

 ing the above-mentioned winter, in consequence of the 

 mild weather, was quite free from ice, the vegetation near 

 it being comparatively green. The many frogs, too, were 

 thoroughly active all winter, albeit without much if any 

 food, and the many small gold-fish and silvery-finned 

 minnows in the pond were as readily accessible to the 

 herons as in summer. These frogs and fish afforded 

 an abundant food-supply to these birds from ^November 

 to April. Occasionally they would go as far away as the 

 river, but they soon returned, having probably taken the 

 flight for exercise and not to search for food. 



Least seldom seen, because with us so very shy, of all 

 these long-legged birds, if we except the great white her- 

 on, is the least bittern. I have seldom found more than 

 a single pair in the same neighborhood. "When disturbed, 

 unlike the big bittern or "bog-trotter," it gives no 

 hoarse croak as it takes wing, but with an easy flight it 

 goes a short distance and drops again into the long grass, 

 where it is, I judge, most at home. It does not feed on 

 fish and frogs exclusively, but pursues with wonderful 

 agility the grasshoppers that climb the blades of tall grass 

 and the stems of reeds. Finding a nest, in 1873, I took 

 a position near by, in hopes of seeing something of the 

 movements of the parent birds when unmolested ; but in 

 this I was disappointed, except so far as to determine 

 that they returned to the nest on foot. For the two hours 

 that I watched them they came and went continually, 

 but not once did they fly as high as the tops of the 



