BIRDS OF THE CAMBRIDGE REGION. 



139 



bordered the north bank of Little River just above its junction with Alewife 

 Brook ; that it was then inhabited by several hundred Night Herons ; and that 

 these birds nested in the taller trees, most of which were large white pines. 

 The original growth must have been removed not long afterwards, for the entire 

 tract was densely wooded with oaks and maples fifteen or twenty feet in height 

 when I first became acquainted with it in 1865 or 1866. These second-growth 

 trees were cut down in the winter of 1 901-1902. The area which they once 

 covered may still be traced by the stumps and brushwood which remain. It lies 

 a little beyond the western borders of Cambridge, in Arlington, and the Lexing- 

 ton Branch of the Boston and Maine Railroad passes through it just after cross- 

 ing Alewife Brook. 



The following interesting reference to this heronry occurs under date of May 

 10, 1850, in some manuscript records of the earlier meetings of the Harvard 

 Natural History Society, now preserved in the library of the Museum of Compara- 

 tive Zoology : " With regard to the locality near Fresh Pond, of which Nuttall 

 speaks, some conversation arose. The President remarked that the Blue 1 and 

 Green Herons, which Nuttall found in the same vicinity, were now entirely gone. 

 He had lately visited the heronry. There were this year eight or nine pairs only 

 of the Night Heron. Only one nest was ready for the season [stc], at the time 

 of his visit. The number of the birds was gradually decreasing, and before many 

 years the spot would be quite deserted." 



So far as I ani able to learn no nests of the Night Heron have been found 

 in the Cambridge Region since i860, although we used to look for them per- 

 sistently and at first hopefully, but always vainly, not only in spring but also 

 in winter when it was easy to traverse the frozen swamps and when even 

 the smallest nests were conspicuous in the leafless trees and thickets. The 

 birds were numerous enough up to about 1885 and by no means uncommon for 

 some twelve or fifteen years after that, occurring continuously from the middle 

 of April to well into October. Most of those seen in early spring were in full 

 nuptial dress and no doubt, were migrants bound still further north. Those 

 which remained through May, June and July, were apparently not in breeding 

 condition, for their plumage, as a rule, was ragged and faded (usually of a plain 

 grayish brown) and the sexual organs of such as I shot and dissected invariably 

 proved to be undeveloped. In August there was a marked and sometimes very 

 considerable influx of brown, white-spotted young, probably from breeding sta- 

 tions further inland or to the northward. 



' One might infer from this passage that Nuttall found either the Little Blue Heron (Florida 

 far«/^a) or the Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) breeding nesxYresh Pond. No mention of such 

 an experience, however, occurs in his ' Manual.' 



