408 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 



sections quite abundant in the interior ; as, for instance, Dr. 

 Wood says, " I know of a swamp some fourteen miles from 

 here (East Windsor Hill, Conn.) where thousands breed." — 

 " I have counted eight nests on one maple-tree," &c. This 

 species is most commonly found during the daytime perch- 

 ing in high trees in swamps and thick woods, and seems to 

 feed almost entirely by night. As soon as it begins to grow 

 dark, it begins its flight ; and if we stand in a large meadow, 

 or by a pond or other sheet of water, we may sometimes 

 hear the notes of several, as they are engaged in their 

 search for prey. The call of this bird resembles the sylla- 

 ble quack, which gives the bird the name of Squawk in 

 many localities. The nest of this species is placed in a fork 

 of a tree in a swamp : it is constructed of coarse twigs and 

 leaves, and is very loosely put together. As above remarked, 

 several of these structures may be found on one tree ; and, 

 after the young are hatched, their noise, as they scream for 

 food, is almost deafening. I once visited a heronry of this 

 species in Dedham, Mass. As many as a hundred pairs 

 were breeding in the area of an acre ; and, as Wilson truly 

 says, " The noise of the old and young would almost induce 

 one to suppose that two or three hundred Indians were 

 choking or throttling each other." 



Another larger heronry that I visited last season in 

 company with my friends, F. G. Sanborn and H. A. Purdie, 

 occupied an area of several acres. The locality was a 

 swamp, in which were growing cedar-trees. These were 

 rarely over thirty feet in height ; but their dense and twin- 

 ing branches were occupied often by the nests of two or 

 three pairs in a single tree. The reader may judge as to the 

 multitude of parent-birds that were flying in wild confusion 

 over our heads, and may fancy the effect of all their guttural 

 cries. We ascended to a number of the nests, and found 

 them occupied by eggs, both freshly laid and others, far 

 advanced in incubation, and chicks from one day old to 

 some half grown. As the work of ascending to the filthy 



