86 BIRD STUDIES WITH A CAMERA 



of the privilege of observing its singularly stately 

 grace of pose and motion lie is selfish beyond expres- 

 sion, does not even vaguely occur to this so-called 

 "sportsman," who belongs in the class to whom a 

 majestic cliff is a quarry, a noble tree, lumber. Until 

 he has been educated to properly value the beauties 

 of Nature, or at least realize the rights of others in 

 them, he must be restrained by law, to the force of 

 which even he is not blind. 



Only the Great Blue Heron's extreme wariness 

 and habit of frequenting shores and marshes where 

 it can command an extended view of its surround- 

 ings has preserved it from extinction ; but when 

 nesting it is comi_)elled to visit woodlands where its 

 human enemies have better opportunities to ap- 

 proach it, and its only chance for safety during the 

 breeding season is to select a retreat remote from 

 the home of man. For this reason Great Blue Heron 

 rookeries are exceedingly uncommon in more settled 

 parts of the bird's range, and north of Florida I 

 have seen their nests in only one locality. 



It was the week after my visit to the Night 

 Herons that, in northern Cayuga County, New 

 York, I was led by a local ornithologist through one 

 of the heaviest pieces of timl)er I have ever seen 

 north of a primeval ti-opical forest, in search of a 

 Great Blue Heron rookery which he knew to exist, 

 and only my confidence in his woodsmanship gave 

 me courage to follow him over fallen trees and 

 through the season's dense undergrowth, from which 

 our passage raised such a host of mosquitoes that 

 every step was a battle. If the vicious little insects 

 had lived only to protect the Herons, they could not 



