30 YEARBOOK, PUBLIC MUSEUM, MILWAUKEE. [Vol. I. 



on which the Great Blue Heron colony is situated, that the young were 

 hatching. I left for the field the following day. Mr. Stoddard joined 

 me May sixteenth. The members of the Baird family were enthused 

 with the work we were doing and assisted us in many ways. 



Upon our first visit to the heronry the birds did not appear to be 

 very shy. They hovered over head or perched in the tree-tops seventy- 

 five or a hundred yards away, but after Mr. Stoddard had appeared in 

 the tree-tops, as shown in figure 15, and had stolen one or two of their 

 nests with the young, they gradually became more wary. 



We made it a rule to watch for the birds that would light near the 

 nests we had decided to collect. By shooting these, no orphans were 

 left in the heronry. I had no difificulty in getting them at seventy to 

 seventy-five yards with m}^ 22 Stevens Favorite, vising 22 long rifle 

 cartridges. 



One heron that Mr. Stoddard shot was eviden ly just returning from 

 its feeding ground, for it had a nine and a half inch, and a nine inch 

 carp in its gullet, and one eleven and a half inch carp in its stomach, 

 about three inches of which also was sticking up in the gullet, the bird's 

 stomach being too small to accommodate it. These carp were quite 

 fresh, there being no sign of the digestive juices having yet worked upon 

 them. 



One day I found a young heron which had fallen from its nest. It 

 had become fairly well feathered, standing about a foot high, and ap- 

 peared to be very hungry as it opened its mouth wide for me to feed it. 

 I looked around for a frog. I had seen plenty of them in that part of 

 the woods, which was swampy in places. Being unable at that time, 

 however, to locate a frog, I finally found a small toad which the fledg- 

 ling eagerly swallowed. 



I watched the heron to see what effect it might have, and in about 

 three or four minutes the toad was disgorged, looking none the worse 

 for its experience, but there was a very sick young heron. Not only was 

 it unable to stand up, but the bright greenish-yellow of its skin appeared 

 to have faded, so I chloroformed it to end its troubles. 



This reminded me of an incident that occurred a few years ago. I 

 owned a very finely bred fox terrier whose delicately tinted pink skin 

 showed through its short hair. One day while strolling on the out- 

 skirts of Milwaukee he found a toad which he playfully picked up and 

 dropped several times. In a few moments I noticed that a ball of foam 

 had formed on either side of the dog's mouth. He then collapsed, his 

 legs crumpled under him and his pink skin changed to a chalky white. 



