n 



THE 00L0G1ST. 



ly treacherous, especially on a rainy 

 day. 



It was on such a day, the 9th of May 

 when K. R. Willhelm and 1 proceeded 

 to lay in a supply of eggs of this species 

 after camping out in the woods on the 

 hanks of the St. Joseph river. Though 

 something of a climber myself for high 

 nests in my day, I went on this excur- 

 sion simply as a helper, yet with the 

 prospect of taking notes and sharing in 

 the eggs. 



It was simply marvelous to see this 

 man ascend those smooth boles and go 

 out on the long slippery limbs. All 

 this too with celerity and without a fail- 

 ure to secure all the full sets. In one 

 instance he spurred up a smooth syca- 

 more, ten feet and seven inches in cir- 

 cumference at three feet from thegronnd 

 made a personal inspection of each of 

 the sixteen modern nests, collected ele- 

 ven complete sets of eggs, aggregating 

 forty-live eggs, which he lowered to me 

 in two hand-basketfuls aud returned to 

 the ground in one hour and twenty min- ' 

 utes. In this way he collected nearly 

 two hundred eggs out of six trees, all 

 of which were sycamores excepting one 

 giant elm about eleven feet in circum- 

 ference. Four eggs seems to be the us- 

 ual number, though theie were several 

 sets of live, and two sets of six. It is a 

 singular fact that the eggs are consider- 

 ably smaller than those of the same spe- 

 cies fouud in Florida, while a set of eggs 

 from that state embraces but three. 



Many nests visited on May 9th con- 

 tained young birds of quite three weeks 

 which raised considerable clatter when 

 the old Herons hove in sight with food, 

 while fully one-fourth the nests were 

 either empty or contained one to three 

 eggs. The very young birds were fed 

 by disgorging, but the larger young 

 were fed entire fish, a change according 

 to requirements which agrees with the 

 habits of the young pelicans which I 

 have observed in Florida. The old 

 birds often fish in the night, at least 

 when rearing young. When camped 

 near a larjje heronry we could hear the 



old ones arriving as late as 10 p. m. v 

 aud the j'oung birds would immediately- 

 raise their clatter for food. 



The Great Blue generally arrives from 

 the South about the middle of March, 

 but is sometimes a little later, and again 

 in advanced seasons in the early part of 

 the month, or late Februaty. It does, 

 not take its departure till late October, 

 and may sometimes be seen in Decem- 

 ber. 



It is undoubtedly a very destructive- 

 species to our fishing interests, as it 

 feeds largely on small fry, and neces- 

 sarily does incalculable damage. It al- 

 so feeds on craw fish as I have proved 

 by dissection. I tried to eat the eggs, 

 boiled, but found them strong and en- 

 tirely unpalatable. The Great Blue 

 Heron has an extremely gutteral note, 

 but the young ones have a monotonous 

 clatter which would make a horse fiddle 

 turn green with envy. 



American egret 

 . Also called White Heron and 

 Greater Egret. I know very little 

 comparatively about this species. I do 

 not recall having seen it in the months 

 of May and April or in September and 

 October. However, it is not uncommon 

 occasionally in summer. Twice during 

 the month of July I have known it to 

 be quite common. Have also seen it 

 repeatedly in August. Whether it is a 

 straggler to our state from the south 

 after the nesting season, or a regular 

 nester to the north of us I cannot say. 

 It is a beautiful bird, and is indeed a 

 grand sight when seen stalking along 

 the marshy edge of lake or river, or in- 

 tently watching for its prey, its snowy 

 coat glistening in the sun's rays. 



SNOWY HERON; LESSER EGRET. 



Much rarer than the last. It is re- 

 corded by several lists in the state, but 

 personally I know nothing of it. It 

 probably may be considered an occa- 

 sional straggler from the south. 



GREEN HERON; 



Also called Shyte-poke and Fly-up- 



