226 American Birds 



to yell his loudest to be heard. I sat astraddle a limb 

 with my note-book in hand. About me, seemingly almost 

 within reach, I counted thirty-six sets of blue eggs. I was 

 high above the tops of the alders and willows. Set all 

 about below in the background of green were the plat- 

 forms, each holding several eggs of blue. The trees were 

 dotted in every direction. I counted over four hundred 

 eggs in sight. 



The black-crowned night heron is a very different 

 looking bird from the great blue. It has a shiny black 

 patch on the top of the head, and a gray body with a black 

 back. The short but thick neck and short legs are just the 

 opposite of the blue heron. The night heron, as the 

 name signifies, is not seen or heard much during the day 

 unless you visit one of their colonies, which is placed gen- 

 erally in some almost inaccessible swamp. As long as 

 these birds can find some protected place to nest they 

 are sure to remain in spite of our civilization, for a colony 

 of several hundred of them still nest in the maples of a 

 dense swamp only a few miles from New York City. 



Great blue herons perched lazily in the tops of the 

 trees. Looking in one direction I counted over a hundred 

 of them. They were sailing in continually and departing. 

 The night herons fluttered about in a jerky, labored 

 flight, lighting in the willows and hovering over their 

 nests. 



A night heron's or, as often called, a " squawk's " nest 

 looks to me like a mere botch. Some of them are not hol- 

 lowed in the least, but just rough platforms. In a wind 

 the eggs would roll off if the mother did not sit to hold 

 them on. There is not much trouble after the eggs are 



