THE NIGHT HERON THE GREEN HERON. 313 



sound of the syllable 'kwah, uttered in so hollow and sepulchral 

 a tone, as almost to resemble the retchings of a vomiting person 

 These venerable eyries of the Kwah Birds, have been occupied from 

 the remotest period of time, by about eighty to a hundred pairs. 

 When their ancient trees were levelled by the axe, they have been 

 known to remove merely to some other quarter of the same swai*p, 

 and it is only when they have been long teased and plundered that 

 they are ever known to abandon their ancient stations. Their great' 

 est natural enemy is the Crow, and according to the relation of 

 Wilson, one of these heronries, near Thompson's Point, on the banks 

 of the Delaware, was at length entirely abandoned, through the 

 persecution of these sable enemies. Several breeding haunts of the 

 Kwah Birds occur among the red cedar groves, on the sea beach of 

 Cape May; in these places they also admit the association of the Little 

 Egret, the Green Bittern, and the Blue Heron. In a very secluded 

 and marshy island, in Fresh Pond, near Boston, there likewise exista 

 one of these ancient heronries; and though the birds have been fre- 

 quently robbed of their eggs, in great numbers, by mischievous boys, 

 they still lay again immediately after, and usually succeed in raising 

 a sufficient brood. The nests, always in trees, are composed of twigs, 

 slightly interlaced, more shallow and slovenly than those of the Crow, 

 and though often one, sometimes as many as two or three nests a^e 

 built in the same tree. The eggs about four, are as large as those 

 of the common hen, and of a pale greenish blue color. The marsh is 

 usually whitened by the excrements of these birds; and the fragments 

 of broken egg shells, old nests, and small fish, which they have dropped 

 while feeding their young, give a characteristic picture of the sloven- 

 ly, indolent, and voracious character of the occupants of these eyries, 



THE GREEN HEROX. 



The Green Bittern is the most common species in the United States. 



In common with other species, whose habits are principally nocturnal 

 the Green Bittern seeks out the gloomy retreat of the woody swamp, 

 the undrainable bog, and the sedgy marsh. He is also a common 

 hermit, on the inundated, dark willow and alder shaded banks of 

 sluggish streams, and brushy ponds, where he not only often associates 

 with the kindred Kwah Birds and Great Herons, but frequently with 

 the more petulant herd of chattering Blackbirds. When surprised or 

 alarmed, he rises in a hurried manner, uttering a hollow guttural 

 scream, and a '&';, '&';, '&'w, but does not fly far, being very sedentary 

 and soon alighting on some stump or tree, looks round with an 

 outstretched neck, and balancing himself for further retreat, frequently 

 jets his tail. He sometimes flies high, with his neck reclining, and 

 his legs extended,- flapping his wings, and proceeding with considerable 

 expedition. He is also the least shy, of all our species, as well as the 

 most numerous and widely dispersed, being seen far inland, even on 

 the banks of the Missouri, nearly to the river Platte, and frequently near 

 all the maritime marshes, and near ponds, and streams in general 

 HQ ia also particularly attracted by artificial ponds for fish, not refrain- 



