6 NOTES ON THE GREAT BLUE HERON 



order that "my lady's" bonnet might be adorned with the 

 little tuft of feathers," so pretty and so becoming." Mr. R. 

 D. Hoyt, a noted naturalist, residing in Seven Oaks, Florida, 

 wrote me as follows on the 15th of November, 1907: "I 

 will tell you right here that if Fifty Dollars were offered for the 

 skin of a Snowy Heron, it would not be forthcoming. The 

 birds have been entirely exterminated." 



One of the present game wardens in Florida who now is 

 giving his attention to the protection of our bird life admits 

 that he, previous to his appointment, shot 2500 White Egrets. 

 Not only were these finely plumed birds made to suffer, but the 

 Least and other Terns which in breeding time covered with 

 their nests the small islands along the coast of this State in such 

 numbers that it was difficult to walk on these islands without 

 stepping on the eggs, have been nearly all destroyed. In 

 Europe at the mouth of the Elbe the plume hunters have 

 almost exterminated the beautiful Least Tern so that the 

 Government has been compelled to take a hand and stop this 

 detestable slaughter by law. 



Now let us consider the occurrence of the Great Blue Heron 

 in our own immediate neighborhood. About forty years ago 

 there were four colonies of these birds within the radius of fifty 

 miles of Buffalo but these are now almost extinct. One was 

 located near Shelby, Orleans County, New York, but the large 

 tract of timber was cut down and the heronry exterminated. 

 Another was in the Cherry Creek territory in Chautauqua 

 County which I visited with my son on the First of May, 1898. 

 It then contained from 12 to 15 nests. In this colony the birds 

 were building in large and very high pine trees, while in the 

 other heronries lofty elms are preferred. The nests were 

 mostly high in the air and my son undertook to climb to one of 

 them up a pine tree which measured about 9 feet in circum- 

 ference. When he encountered the first branches he was 

 obliged to force his way through the heavy needle twigs in 

 order to reach the nests 112 feet above the ground. Resting 

 several times he was finally able to approach the nest which 

 was four feet in diameter and from 12 to 18 inches thick, con- 

 structed of heavy twigs and branches, many of them more than 

 an inch thick, and lined with finer material. The two beautiful 

 dull blue eggs now adorn our collection. The effort to reach 



