NOTES ON OUR HERONS. 235 



As to its habits, there is in nearly every family of 

 birds some one or more species that have taken more or 

 less completely upon themselves habits not characteristic 

 of the family. This is true, in a measure, of the little 

 green heron. It is the least aquatic of all the family ; 

 for, while strictly a wader and a good fisher, it neverthe- 

 less is not so dependent upon water for a food-supply, and 

 is often found in high and dry fields, looking, I suppose, 

 for grasshoppers. Time and again have I seen them in 

 the woods, where no water was to be found except that 

 which collected about the few small springs, and which 

 often did but little more than dampen the ground. Like 

 our spotted sandpiper, dear " teeter tilt up " of my boy- 

 hood, which often builds in the upland fields, and is as 

 much at home on a worm-fence as is the sparrow, the 

 green heron will nest in trees where there is no water 

 near, and remain there night and day, the greater part of 

 the time. Not that they do not visit the nearest creeks, 

 for this they frequently do ; but, unlike the herons gener- 

 ally, they are not less a feature of our uplands than are 

 the common birds of our door-yards. Their nests, too, 

 are built much nearer to houses than are those of any other 

 heron. These nests are flimsy structures ; often not over 

 a hundred twigs, loosely laid together, constituting the 

 home of the expected brood ; and lucky are they if it 

 holds together until they are able to crawl upon some 

 convenient branch to await the growth and feathering of 

 their wings. One little colony of these herons built, last 

 summer, in a clump of birches near the house, and I 

 think one tliird of the eggs, at least, were broken by fall- 

 ing through the nests ; nearly all of which were so open 

 that the eggs could readily be seen from beneath. How 

 the sitting bird kept them warm enough to insure their 

 hatching is a puzzle. That it was accomplished by con- 



