550° FORMER EXISTENCE OF LOCAL GLACIERS 
flew as rapidly and with as much apparent vigor as in Sep- 
tember. Farther search failed to discover others at the 
time. Two weeks later three others were killed, and in the 
first week of February, one more. These latter specimens 
were equally fat and vigorous. No similar circumstance has 
come under our notice. 
Similar instances of the presence of the Night Heron 
(Nyctiardea Gardenii) have three times come under our no- 
tice. We have found these birds sitting on trees near 
springs, from whence the water flowed swiftly, and about 
which the grass remained quite fresh. Leaving them undis- 
turbed, but watching them frequently, they were never seen 
to leave their perch. From the accumulation of droppings 
it was evident that the particular branch even, on which they 
were first seen, was that on which they had‘been resting for 
some time past. Only single specimens have been thus 
found, all male birds, and they have always been much 
emaciated. When forced to move they all proved able to 
fiy, but returned to their accustomed place, after a circuit- 
ous flight of short duration. Were they too old to go South? 
Did they get any food? If so, what and where? On dis- 
section the stomachs of these three specimens proved to be 
empty, but the uppermost droppings were fresh! 
THE FORMER EXISTENCE OF LOCAL GLACIERS IN 
THE WHITE MOUNTAINS.* 
BY PROFESSOR L. AGASSIZ. 
TWENTY-THREE years ago, when I first visited the White 
Mountains, in the summer of 1847, I noticed unmistakable 
evidences of the former existence of local glaciers. They 
* Read, in the absence of Professor Agassiz, by J. B. Perry, before the American 
Association for the Advancement of Science, Troy meeting, Aug., 1870. 
