GREAT BLUE HERON 73 



ting higher hy their flight, they straight come back to 

 reconnoitre us. 



Land at Lee's Cliff, where the herons have preceded 

 us and are perched on the oaks, conspicuous from afar, 

 and again we have a fair view of their flight. 



Again we scare up the herons, who, methinks, will 

 build hereabouts. They were standing by the water- 

 side. And again they alight farther below, and we see 

 their light-colored heads erect, and their bodies at vari- 

 ous angles as they stoop to drink. And again they flap 

 away with their great slate-blue wings, necks curled 

 up (?) and legs straight out behind, and, having at- 

 tained a great elevation, they circle back over our 

 heads, now seemingly black as crows against the sky, 

 — crows with long wings, they might be taken for, — 

 but higher and higher they mount by stages in the sky, 

 till heads and tails are lost and they are mere black 

 wavelets amid the blue, one always following close be- 

 hind the other. They are evidently mated. It would be 

 worth the while if we could see them oftener in our sky. 



Aug. 23, 1853. I see to-day — and may add to yes- 

 terday's list — the blue heron launch off from an oak by 

 the river and flap or sail away with lumbering flight; 

 also kingbirds and crows. 



Sept. 14, 1854. We see half a dozen herons in this 

 voyage. Their wings are so long in proportion to their 

 bodies that there seems to be more than one undulation 

 to a wing as they are disappearing in the distance, and 

 so you can distinguish them. You see another begin be- 

 fore the first has ended. It is remarkable how common 



