114 



A YEAR OF SPOUT AND NATURAL HISTORY. 



at the top of their tall trees. But the Herons are not the only birds 

 who seem to nest where they should not. (And Herons, for the 

 matter of that, will nest on the ground in a treeless district — in the 

 Irish Bog of Allen, for example.) 



THE HERON. 



Look at the Wild Duck. Putting out of the question those foreign 

 ducks known distinctively as " Tree Ducks," the Summer Duck of 

 our ornamental ponds, and others, our own common Mallard con- 

 stantly nests in trees. I saw a nest last year, in Sweden, for 



