ZT. GILBERT PEARSON. 133 
the food is swallowed. These birds often quit the water, 
and may then be seen walking over the prairie half a mile 
from any lake. This is oftener the case soon after rains, 
when water remains in the slight depressions. The habit is 
mainly indulged in by the Snowy and Little Blue Herons. 
They seem to have no fear of cattle, but pass fearlessly 
among them, and I have on rare occasions seen them perch 
on the backs of the animals, as Blackbirds sometimes do. 
By removing the saddle from my horse and allowing him to 
approach slowly, and at the same time shielding my body, I 
have often been able to come within a few yards of the 
feeding birds. 
Herons do not as a rule frequent in numbers the few 
streams we have, the deep water along the shore not being 
suitable for their mode of capturing food. One may often 
pass down the Oklawaha or Suwannee for a mile or two 
without seeing a single large wader, unless, perchance, it be 
a Green Heron, which turns up on all occasions, and in all 
places where water is found. 
If we wish to see the herons at home we must quit the 
prairies and go to their breeding grounds. These places 
may be found on some boggy island covered with trees or 
bushes ; ata pond in the hummock in which buttonwood 
trees grow; or in the depths of the cypress swamps. Here, 
amid the wild scenes of a Southern morass, one pauses as 
he nears the heronry, and in wonder listens to the discordant 
cries of a multitude of breeding birds. Never shall I forget 
one beautiful morning in March, when in search of Anhingas 
I wandered into a cypress swamp where many herons were 
breeding in the trees surrounding a little patch of open 
water. As our boat glided among the cypresses, from 
whose low-hanging limbs swung long festoons of gray 
moss, so effectually shutting out the rays of the morning 
sun that only here and there was the dark water flecked 
with patches of quivering light, the breeze which swayed 
the topmost boughs brought to our ears the clamor of nesting 
