THE NIGHT HERON. 99 
Wilson gives a similarly interesting account of the breeding-places of 
the Night Heron or Qua Bird, which has been occasionally seen in Europe 
as a straggler. “The Night Heron,” he tells us, “arrives in Pennsylvania 
vearly in April, and immediately takes possession of his former breeding- 
place, which is usually the most solitary and deeply-shaded part of a cedar 
swamp. Groves of swamp oak, in retired and inundated places, are also 
sometimes chosen; and the males not unfrequently select tall woods on the 
banks of a river to roost in during the day. These last regularly direct 
their course, about the beginning of evening twilight, towards the marshes, 
At this hour, also, all 
the nurseries in the swamps are emptied of their inhabitants, who disperse 
uttering, in a hoarse and hollow tone, the sound que. 
about the marshes, and along the ditches and river shore, in quest of food. 
Some of these breeding-places have been occupied, every spring and summer, 
for time immemorial, by from eighty to one hundred pairs of Qua Birds. In 
places where the cedars have been cut down for sale, the birds have merely 
removed to another quarter of the swamp; but when personally attacked, 
long teased and plundered, they have been known to remove from an ancient 
breeding-place, in a body, no one knew where. Such was the case with one 
on the Delaware, near Thompson’s Point, ten or twelve miles below Phila- 
delphia, which, having been repeatedly attacked and plundered by a body of 
crows, after many severe encounters, the herons finally abandoned the place. 
the red cedars on the sea-beach 
of Cape May, intermixed with those of the little White Heron, Green Bit- 
The nests are built entirely of sticks, in considerable 
The eves 
( 
wie) 
Several of these breeding-places occur among 
tern, and Blue Heron. 
quantities, with frequently three or four nests on the same tree. 
are generally four in number, measuring two inches and a quarter in length, 
by one and three quarters in thickness, and of a very pale light-blue color. 
The ground or marsh below is bespattered with their excrements, lying all 
around like whitewash, with feathers, broken ege-shells, old nests, and fre- 
quently small fish, which they have dropped by accident, and neglected to 
pick up. On entering the swamp in the neighborhood of one of these breed- 
ing-places, the noise of the old and the young would almost induce one to 
suppose that two or three hundred Indians were choking or throttling each 
other. The instant an intruder is discovered, the whole rise in the air in 
silence, and remove to the tops of the trees in another part of the woods, 
while parties of from eight to tea make occasional circuits over the spot, to 
see what is going on. When the young are able, they climb to the highest 
part of the ‘trees; but, knowing their inability, do not attempt to fly. 
Though it is probable that these nocturnal birds do not see well during the 
day, yet their faculty of hearing must be exquisite, as it is almost impossi- 
ble, with all the precautions one can use, to penetrate near their residence 
