r 



OREAT BLUE HERON. 89 



trict as a feeding ground, giving chase to every intruder of its own spe- 

 cies. At such times they also repose singly, for the most part roosting 

 on trees, although sometimes taking their station on the ground, in the 

 midst of a wide marsh, so that they may be secure from the approach of 

 man. This unsocial temper probably arises from the desire of securing 

 a certain abundance of food, of which each individual in fact requires a 

 large quantity. 



The manners of this Heron are exceedingly interesting at the approach 

 of the breeding season, when the males begin to look for partners. About 

 sunrise you see a number arrive and alight either on the margin of a broad 

 sand-bar or on a savannah. They come from different quarters, one after 

 another, for several hours ; and when you see forty or fifty before you, it 

 is difficult for you to imagine that half the number could have resided 

 in the same district. Yet in the Floridas I have seen hundreds thus col- 

 lected in the course of a morning. They are now in their full beauty, 

 and no young birds seem to be among them. The males walk about with 

 an air of great dignity, bidding defiance to their rivals, and the females 

 croak to invite the males to pay their addresses to them. The females 

 utter their coaxing notes all at once, and as each male evinces an equal 

 desire to please the object of his affection, he has to encounter the enmity 

 of many an adversary, who, with little attention to politeness, opens his 

 powerful bill, throws out his wings, and rushes with fury on his foe. 

 Each attack is carefully guarded against, blows are exchanged for blows ; 

 one would think that a single well-aimed thrust might suffice to inflict 

 death, but the strokes are parried with as much art as an expert swords- 

 man would employ ; and, although I have watched these birds for half 

 an hour at a time as they fought on the ground, I never saw one killed 

 on such an occasion ; but I have often seen one felled and trampled upon, 

 even after incubation had commenced. These combats over, the males 

 and females leave the place in pairs. They are now mated for the sea- 

 son, at least I am inclined to think so, as I never saw them assemble 

 twice on the same ground, and they become comparatively peaceable after 

 pairing. 



It is by no means a constant practice with this species to breed in 

 communities, whether large or small ; for although I have seen many 

 such associations, I have also found many pairs breeding apart. Nor do 

 they at all times make choice of the trees placed in the interior of a swamp, 

 for I have found heronries in the pine-barrens of the Floridas, more than 



