BLUE HERON N_E STS. 
145 
“Yes, yes, that’s it. They ain’t so stilted up 
as the bull-geese, but there ain’t much but legs 
to any of ’em. You seem to be. so sorter curi’s 
about birds, maybe you’d like to see some of ’em 
close by ? ” 
“ Indeed I should.” 
“ I hain’t bin down there myself, but the boys 
say that in the big grove on Henderson’s island, 
the bull-geese air nestin’, and there’s a sight of 
’em among the trees.” 
The last clause of this instructive conversation 
was gratefully received. That the birds he re- 
ferred to were a variety of wader, Mrs. Maxwell 
had no doubt, but could gather no idea from the 
name whether they were herons, cranes, storks, 
or ibis. 
Upon reaching the designated spot the uncer- 
tainty was dispelled. A colony of great blue 
herons were nesting there. 
The trees of the grove were very tall, their 
lower limbs being twenty-five or thirty feet from 
the ground, and the nests were in their tops ; so 
how to reach and explore them was a difficult 
problem. They solved it by attaching a piece of 
twine to the end of a ramrod and firing that, in- 
stead of a bullet, over a limb of a tree. Once 
having the twine over a branch, a rope ladder 
was tied to it and drawn up. Mr. Maxwell, 
ascending it, found the herons had reduced 
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