60 BLUE HERON. 
with some on small ponds in the pine barrens, at a considerable dis- 
ance from any large stream, whither they had been attracted by the 
great number of frogs. 
The flight of the Blue Heron is rather swifter than that of the Egret, 
Ardea candidissima, and considerably more so than that of the Great Blue 
Heron, Ardea Herodias, but very similar to that of the Louisiana Heron, 
Ardea Ludoviciana. When the bird is travelling,the motion is performed 
by flappings in quick succession, which rapidly propel it in a direct 
line, until it is about to alight, when it descends in circular sailings of 
considerable extent towards the spot selected. During strong adverse 
winds, they fly low, and in a continuous line, passing at the necessary 
distance from the shores to avoid danger, whether at an early or a late 
hour of the day. I recollect that once, on such an occasion, when, on 
the 15th of March, I was in company with my friend Joun Bacumay, I 
saw a large flock about sunset arising from across the river, and circling 
over a large pond, eight miles distant from Charleston. So cautious 
were they, that although the flock was composed of several hundred indi- 
viduals, we could not manage to get so much as a chance of killing 
one. I have been surprised to see how soon the Blue Herons become 
shy after reaching the districts to which they remove for the purpose 
of breeding from their great rendezvous the Floridas, where I never 
experienced any difficulty in procuring as many as I wished. In Loui- 
siana, on the other hand, I have found them equally vigilant on their 
first arrival. On several occasions, when I had placed myself under 
cover, to shoot at some, while on their way to their roosts or to their 
feeding grounds, I found it necessary to shift from one place to ano- 
ther, for if one of them had been fired at and had fallen ina particular 
place, all that were in its company took care not to pass again near it, 
but when coming up diverged several hundred yards, and increased 
their speed until past, when they would assume their more leisurely 
flappings. In South Carolina, where they are very shy on their arrival, 
I have seen them fly off on hearing the very distant report of a gun, 
and alight on the tops of the tallest trees, where they would congre- 
gate in hundreds, and whence they would again fly off on the least ap- 
prehension of danger. But when once these Herons have chosen a place 
to nestle in, or reached one in which they bred the preceding year, 
they become so tame as to allow you to shoot as many as you are dis- 
posed to have. 
