THE NIDOLOGIST 75 
A Visit to a Herony. 
BY VERDI BURTCH. 
R. CLARENCE STONE of Branch- 
port, and I liveeight miles apart and 
nine miles from each of us is the be- 
ginning of the great ‘‘Potter Swamps,”’ 
where a colony of Great Blue Herons make 
their summer home. Every spring we go 
to the rookery to get a few setsol eggs. 
This last spring I wrote to Stone to meet 
me May 3,at 7 A. M.,at an old barn which 
stands near the edge of the swamp and we 
would have a day with the Herons. I re- 
ceived a reply that he would be there. The 
day dawned bright and clear and I arose in 
the best of spirits before five o’clock and 
at six o’clock I was ready to start. I had 
strapped to my wheel my climbers, collect- 
ing box, and last, but not least, a good sub- 
stantial lunch. 
Ata few minutes before seven o’clock I 
broke over the brow of the hill, and there 
before me in panorama lay the great swamp 
stretching out north as far as the eye could 
reach. But I was so anxious to get to the 
Herony that I did not stop to view the 
beautiful scene, but was soon down the 
hill and at the barn, but Stone was not 
there. Looking toward the swamp I could 
see anumber of tall trees towering way 
above their companions. In each of these 
was a gigantic nest of sticks; on the near- 
est of them I couldsee birds, and above in 
the air were numbers of Herons flying to 
and fro uttering their peculiar squak. After 
a few minutes of this sight I got impatient, 
so I wrote a note toStone (saying that I 
had gone on into the swamp) and nailed it 
to the side of the barn, then plunged into 
the wilderness. 
After wading through mud and water, 
and falling over logs and stumps, and dodg- 
ing poison ivy for about twenty minutes, 
I came to the Herony, where I could plainly 
see the huge nests some 60 to 8o feet up in 
the very tops of ash trees, the most of which 
were dead, and consequently very danger- 
ous toclimb. Just here I saw fresh tracks 
in the mud so I shouted and Stone answered. 
(It seemed ke had misunderstood my letter, 
stopped at another barn and entered the 
swamp before me.) I soon found him half 
way up a large ash, in the top of which 
was a Heron's nest, Then the following 
conversation took place: 
‘‘Hello, Clarence, have you been here 
long?’’ 
“No; just come. Climbed two trees 
close together, and got two sets and now I 
am after this one. You had better tackle 
that one behind you.”’ 
On going to the tree I found fresh climber 
marks on it, so I said: ‘‘Why, you have 
been up this one. There are fresh marks 
Oneitc 
‘‘No; I just came here.” 
‘‘Well, somebody has been up this tree 
today, and I followed your tracks here, so 
you must have been here before.” 
“No, I haven’t been that way at all. I 
just came from the road and followed 
your tracks.”’ 
So we had an argument on which way 
the read was and by this time Stone had 
reached the nest and said: ‘“Pshaw! It is 
empty.”’ 
Now, after he had come down and we had 
walked around a while he tound that he 
was completely turned around and had 
climbed twice to the same nest after eggs, 
and of course was disappointed. 
This Herony contains about thirty nests, 
allin tall ash trees. One tree contained 
three nests, two others two nests each and 
the others a single nest to the tree. There 
was formerly one tree with five nests, 
but some of them got blown down. 
We took seven sets of eggs, four of five 
eggs each, and three of four eggs each. The 
eggs were in all stages of incubation, there 
being fresh and badly incubated eggs in 
thesame set. Five eggs seemed to bea 
complete set, although Mr. Stone took a set 
of seven three years ago. ‘ 
After climbing one of the trees it wasa 
great sight to look around and see the other 
nests. Some in the distance with the bird 
sitting on them, and on others nearer by 
the birds had their long necks stretched out 
or were standing up ready to leave. The 
nearest uests were empty and their owners 
were flying about protesting about our in- 
trusion. 
Among the Heron’s nests and within 
fifty feet of them I found a nest?of Red- 
shouldered Hawk containing three very 
small eggs. It was in a large maple about 
forty feet from the ground. 
In the open marsh quite near the Heronry 
we found breeding, Virginia Rails, Long- 
billed Marsh Wrens, American Bitterns 
and Marsh Hawks. But I will leave these 
for some future paper. 
Penn Yan, N. Y. 
