THE GREAT BLUE HERON. 125 



time when these birds breed, the effluvia being extremely injurious to health, 

 besides the difficulties to be overcome in making one's way to them. 



Imagine, if you can, an area of some hundred acres, overgrown with huge 

 cypress trees, the trunks of which, rising to a height of perhaps fifty feet 

 before they send off a branch, spring from the midst of the dark muddy 

 waters. Their broad tops, placed close together with interlaced branches, 

 seem intent on separating the heavens from the earth. Beneath their dark 

 canopy scarcely a single sunbeam ever makes its way; the mire is covered 

 with fallen logs, on which grow matted grasses and lichens, and the deeper 

 parts with nympheae and other aquatic plants. The congo snake and water- 

 moccasin glide before you as they seek to elude your sight, hundreds of tur- 

 tles drop, as if shot, from the floating trunks of the fallen trees, from which 

 also the sullen alligator plunges into the dismal pool. The air is pregnant 

 with pestilence, but alive with musquitoes and other insects. The croaking 

 of the frogs, joined with the hoarse cries of the Anhingas and the screams 

 of the Herons, forms fit music for such a scene. Standing knee-deep in the 

 mire, you discharge your gun at one of the numerous birds that are breeding 

 high over head, when immediately such a deafening noise arises, that, if you 

 have a companion with you, it were quite useless to speak to him. The 

 frightened birds cross each other confusedly in their flight; the young at- 

 tempting to secure themselves, some of them lose their hold, and fall into 

 the water with a splash; a shower of leaflets whirls downwards from the 

 tree-tops, and you are glad to make your retreat from such a place. Should 

 you wish to shoot Herons, you may stand, fire, and pick up your game as 

 long as you please; you may obtain several species, too, for not only does 

 the Great Blue Heron breed there, but the White, and sometimes the Night 

 Heron, as well as the Anhinga, and to such places they return year after 

 year, unless they have been cruelly disturbed. 



The nest of the Blue Heron, in whatever situation it may be placed, is 

 large and flat, externally composed of dry sticks, and matted with weeds and 

 mosses to a considerable thickness. When the trees are large and conve- 

 nient, you may see several nests on the same tree. The full complement of 

 eggs which these birds lay is three, and in no instance have I found more. 

 Indeed, this is constantly the case with all the large species with which I am 

 acquainted, from Ardea ccerulea to Jlrdea occidentalis; but the smaller 

 species lay more as they diminish in size, the Louisiana Heron having fre- 

 quently four, and the Green Heron five, and even sometimes six. Those of 

 the Great Blue Heron are very small compared with the size of the bird, 

 measuring only two and a half inches by one and seven-twelfths; they are of 

 a dull bluish-white, without spots, rather rough, and of a regular oval form. 



The male and the female sit alternately, receiving food from each other, 



