294 
The Outing Magazine 
lieved, to have caused a decided change in 
the families of the herons. This day was 
as hot as the first — it seemed heat and 
herons were inseparable. The noise was 
apparently more deafening than on the 
previous trip, and we soon learned it was 
caused by their attention to their young 
and quarreling among themselves. 
The small vines and swamp growth had 
taken quite a start, and the place presented 
even more the appearance of an undis- 
turbed wilderness. The old birds were just 
as prone to leave the vicinity upon the en- 
trance of undesirable intruders, except that 
they hovered rather longer above their 
young, and after many loud, penetrating 
squawks took themselves away to safer 
realms, leaving their children to our care. 
On this trip, we found both eggs and 
young in the nests. The oldest had ap- 
parently celebrated their first birthdays 
about two weeks previously. The major- 
ity were very young in days, but had the 
instinct of their fathers, really frightening 
one with their loud cries and repeated 
thrusts of bills. This time we had to exer- 
cise more care in handling our subjects. 
Removing them from their nests, we care- 
fully placed them in the hat and lowered 
them — the nests followed. It was an easy 
matter then to do the rest, and when the 
tenants and their homes had been returned, 
the day’s work was finished. 
Our third trip we planned for a date late 
enough to give the birds time to become 
more fully grown, yet not quite large 
enough to fly. 
We left Boston on the first train on the 
morning of June the tenth. The usual 
heron weather prevailed — very hot. By 
this time the swamp presented a most tan- 
gled appearance, and we experienced con- 
siderable difficulty in pushing our way in 
and pulling our traps after us. The young 
had now attained a fair growth, and in 
many cases were sitting out upon the limbs 
near to the nests. 
The usual diet is fish, and for the past 
three weeks this vicinity had been one vast 
boarding-house. What with the hot sun 
beating down upon the putrid fish and the 
dead young — for very many of them die 
through natural causes and falling from the 
nests — the odor was almost unbearable. 
I found the older ones, which were more 
desirable for my purpose, had developed 
a most remarkable sense of caution and 
agility since my last visit, and it taxed my 
brain to discover some means to attain my 
object. The hat would certainly not an- 
swer the purpose; even if one put them in, 
they would not stay put. One had to 
catch them first, and therein lay the diffi- 
culty. They were forewarned before my 
assistant had covered more than half the 
distance up the tree, and upon a closer ap- 
proach the youngsters, with a remarkable 
agility, would spring from limb to limb, 
and in that way pass from tree to tree. 
They used their long necks to great ad- 
vantage, jumping and hooking their heads 
over the limb aimed at, holding on in that 
fashion while they clawed with their sharp 
nails until they gained the limb; and then 
the process was repeated with varying 
success, but with much speed, nevertheless. 
I finally resorted to shaking the smaller 
trees, and in that way succeeded in event- 
ually getting one down. This method was 
repeated from farther up on the trees, and 
after much time we collected sufficient for 
our first sitting; and a most unwilling group 
of sitters it was. For a time they devoted 
all their endeavors to striving to get away; 
in the meantime keeping up a continual 
squawking. Some, more fortunate than 
the others, succeeded in getting free, and 
then commenced a foot race, with all the 
honors to the chased. It is almost incred- 
ible with what swiftness they covered the 
ground — over fallen, rotted logs, across 
mud patches, under masses of growing 
vines and briers, through it all they sped, 
trusting to bold speed rather than to the 
more timid hiding. Once the chase was 
started with the bird a few feet ahead, al- 
most near enough to grasp, it was practi- 
cally a sure thing that Master Heron was 
safe. 
Yet, withal, they were apparently a 
timid party, and 1 thought 1 might be able 
to do much with patience and gentle hand- 
ling. In this I was correct, and succeeded 
in actually training them in a while so they 
lost their fright and evinced practically no 
fear of their strange companion. They be- 
came, from the most unruly of subjects, 
the most tractable of models, strange as it 
may seem. One in particular became es- 
pecially friendly, without the least sign of 
fear, remaining perfectly still in the posi- 
tions 1 placed him in for a minute or more 
