NIGHT HERON. 277 



by clay, and at which they generally arrive singly, or a few at a time, 

 when, from your place of concealment among the trees, you may kill them 

 the moment they alight over your head, and at a short distance. In this 

 manner I have known forty or fifty procured by two sportsmen in the 

 course of about two hours. You may also not unfrequently shoot them 

 at any hour of the day, by starting them from secluded feeding-grounds, 

 and thus I have shot a good many in different parts of the United States, 

 and even in the Middle Districts. They are, however, rarely shot whilst 

 on the ground, their hearing being still more acute than that of the Ame- 

 rican Bittern; which prefers squatting in the grass to flying off, when any 

 noise is heard, whereas the Night Heron rises immediately. 



This species breeds in communities around the stagnant ponds, either 

 near rice plantations or in the interior of retired and secluded swamps, as 

 well as on some of the sea islands covered with evergreen trees. Their 

 heronries are formed either in low bushes, or in middle-sized or tall trees, 

 as seems most convenient or secure. In the Floridas, they are partial to 

 the mangroves that overhang the salt-water ; in Louisiana, they prefer the 

 cypresses ; and in the Middle States, they find the cedars most suitable. 

 In some breeding-places within a few miles of Charleston, which I visited 

 in company with my friend John Bachman, the nests were placed on low 

 bushes, and crowded together, some within a yard of the ground, others 

 raised seven or eight feet above it, many being placed flat on the branches, 

 while others were in the forks. Hundreds of them might be seen at once, 

 as they were built on the side of the bushes fronting the water. Those 

 which I found in the Floridas were all placed on the south-west sides of 

 mangrove islands, but were farther apart from each other, some being on- 

 ly about a foot above high-water mark, while others were in the very tops 

 of the trees, which, however, scarcely exceeded twenty feet in height. In 

 some inland swamps in Louisiana, I saw them placed on the tops of tall 

 cypress trees about a hundred feet high, and along with those of Ardea 

 Herodias, A. alba, and some Anhingas. In the Jerseys I have found the 

 Night Herons breeding on water oaks and cedars ; and my friend Tho- 

 mas NuTTALL informs me, that " in a very secluded and marshy island, 

 in Fresh Pond, near Boston, there likewise exists one of these ancient 

 heronries ; and though the birds have been frequently robbed of their 

 eggs, in great numbers, by mischievous boys, they still lay again im- 

 mediately after, and usually succeed in raising a second brood."" The 

 same accurate observer remarks, that " about the middle of October, the 



