The Black-crowned Night Heron 



will divide evenly between those who will try to escape by scuttling 

 through the reeds and those who will stay to fight it out. Of the former, 

 manj- certainly come to grief; and from the number of drowned chicks I 

 have seen, I judge that the old birds have no wit to retrieve their young- 

 sters once they leave the nest. Yet I saw one bantling which went souse! 



Taken in Riverside County 

 Photo by the Author 



A DISMAL HAUNT 



THE VIEW IS THAT OF THE SALTON 

 SEA OF 1913 



into the water and scrambled out again by clambering up the reeds. Not 

 only were his great toes wrapped about the plant-stems, but he seized 

 them with his bill as well, parrot-fashion. 



From those which stay to fight we shall hear a rattling or clucking 

 Rail-like noise, delivered with menacing gestures. Two young rascals, 

 one of whom is depicted on p. 1912, each about the size of acocoanut, made 

 as though to eat us alive. With open beak, and fauces which really did 

 look terrifying to a degree, they parried and lunged with the valor of 

 Spartans. Between thrusts the muscles of the throat quivered and 

 vibrated spasmodically, precisely as in the case of young cormorants. 

 This behavior character is, in fact, a common ancestral inheritance of 

 the Steganopodes and Herodiones. 



These particular warriors were certainly uglier than the law ought 

 to allow. Potbellies and flippers are common juvenal characters, but 

 the heads of these infants were covered with a twisty, scattering, long, 



1915 



