32 BEACH GRASS 



boring creeks and estuaries, and night herons 

 from distant heronries have been in the habit of 

 taking their noonday siestas in these trees for 

 many years. In the summer of 1916, I found 

 several pairs had nested there, and counted 

 twenty-five nests. In 1917, I counted one hun- 

 dred and sixty-seven nests, and, as the number 

 of birds was rapidly increasing, I determined, in 

 1918, to make a careful census of nests after the 

 birds had flown. With the help of two boys, I 

 began one cold December day to count the nests 

 in each tree, and, that we might not count the 

 same tree twice, we tied a white string around 

 the trunk of each counted tree. This proved 

 slow work and very cold for the fingers. As 

 there was a light snow on the ground, we found 

 that by stamping the snow at the foot of the 

 trunk, we could quickly and effectually mark the 

 tree. In this way the count was accurate as far 

 as it went, but we probably overlooked a few 

 trees on the periphery of the roost. Here are 

 the results: 492 nesting trees containing one to 

 eight nests each, and a total of 761 nests. The 

 nests varied in size from thin, flimsy affairs to 



