72 Birds of Buzzard's Roost 



and solitude. Loneliness can only be expressed by sentiment 

 life. A deeper sense of desolation is aroused by seeing a water- 

 fowl coursing its solitary flight above the sea, than in the 

 grandest vision of the boundless deep, unrelieved by even the 

 least appearance of vitality." The flight of the heron is slow 

 and solemn, but grand and stately. Quite frequently I have 

 seen them making their way up and down Fall Creek at Buz- 

 zard's Roost and across the country to White River, and vice 

 versa. This occurs generally when the days are cloudy. Oc- 

 casionally their flight is attended with their quite indescribable 

 piercing squawks and cries, and then, according to Indian 

 lore, it is going to rain. In flight the neck is bent backwards 

 against the shoulders, and their long legs are stretched out 

 behind them, stiff and immovable, At Buzzard's Roost a 

 favorite place for them to alight is on the topmost limbs of a 

 large sycamore tree on the bank of Fall Creek in front of the 

 cottage, and the color of their bodies being much like the blue- 

 gray color of the limbs of the tree, makes it somewhat difficult 

 to see them. Occasionally I have tracked them in the sand on 

 the banks of the stream. Long may they keep coming there, 

 is the wish of the owner of the place. They add a distinctive 

 and interesting feature to its landscape. 



The principal part of the food of this heron, as al- 

 ready stated, consists largely of fish. He is also fond of craw- 

 fish, frogs, snakes and eels. Wilson says : "He is also an ex- 

 cellent mouser, and of great service to our meadows in de- 

 stroying the short-tailed or meadow mouse, so injurious to 

 the banks. He also feeds eagerly on grasshoppers, various 

 winged insects, particularly dragon flies, which he is very ex- 

 pert at sticking, and also eats the seeds of that species of nym- 

 phse usually called splatter dock, so abundant along our fresh 

 water ponds and rivers." As has already been said, he cap- 

 tures his food with his long and sharp bill. He also uses his 

 bill in defending himself against his enemies. My friend Dr. 

 O. S. Coffin tells me that in his practice he has had two 

 patients, each of whom had lost an eye by an attack of herons 

 which had been disabled by them while they were hunting. 

 These were instances where the hunted in some measure got 

 even with those who hunted them. Perhaps if there were 



