GREAT BLUE HERON. 
79 
timorous deer. From the bosom of these choked lakes, and 
arising out of the dark and pitchy bog, may be seen large 
clumps of the tall cypress {^Cuprcssus disticha), like the in- 
numerable connecting columns of the shady mangrove, for 
sixty or more feet rising without a branch j and their spreading 
tops, blending together, form a canopy so dense as almost to 
exclude the light from beneath their branches. In the tops of 
the tallest of these tree the wary Herons, associated to the 
number of ten or fifteen pair, construct their nests, each one 
in the top of a single tree ; these are large, formed of coarse 
sticks, and merely lined with smaller twigs. The eggs, gene- 
rally four, are somewhat larger than those of the hen, of a 
iight-greenish blue, and destitute of spots. The young are seen 
abroad about the middle of May, and become extremely fat 
and full grown before they make any effective attempts to fly. 
They raise but a single brood ; and when disturbed at their 
eyries, fly over the spot, sometimes honking almost like a 
goose, and at others uttering a loud, hollow, and guttural grunt. 
Fish is the principal food of the Great Herons, and for this 
purpose, like an experienced angler, they often wait for that 
condition of the tide which best suits their experience and 
instinct. At such times they are seen slowly sailing out from 
their inland breeding-haunts during the most silent and cool 
period of the summer’s day, selecting usually such shallow 
inlets as the ebbing tide leaves bare or accessible to their 
Watchful and patient mode of prowling ; here, wading to the 
knees, they stand motionless amidst the timorous fry till some 
victim coming within the compass of their wily range is as 
instantly seized by the powerful bill of the Heron as if it were 
the balanced poniard of the assassin or the unerring pounce 
of the Osprey. If large, the fish is beaten to death, and com- 
monly swallowed with the head descending, as if to avoid any 
obstacle arising from the reversion of the fins or any hard 
external processes. On land the Herons have also their fare, 
ns they are no less successful anglers than mousers, and ren- 
der an important service to the farmer in the destruction 
they make among most of the reptiles and meadow shrews. 
