THE GREAT BLUE HERON. 
125 
time when these birds breed, the effluvia being extremely injurious to health, 
besides the difficulties to be overcome in making one’s way to them. 
Imagine, if you can, an area of some hundred acres, overgrown with huge 
cypress trees, the trunks of which, rising to a height of perhaps fifty feet 
before they send off a branch, spring from the midst of the dark muddy 
waters. Their broad tops, placed close together with interlaced branches, 
seem intent on separating the heavens from the earth. Beneath their dark 
canopy scarcely a single sunbeam ever makes its way ; the mire is covered 
with fallen logs, on which grow matted grasses and lichens, and the deeper 
parts with nymphem and other aquatic plants. The Congo snake and water- 
moccasin glide before you as they seek to elude your sight, hundreds of tur- 
tles drop, as if shot, from the floating trunks of the fallen trees, from which 
also the sullen alligator plunges into the dismal pool. The air is pregnant 
with pestilence, but alive with musquitoes and other insects. The croaking 
of the frogs, joined with the hoarse cries of the Anliingas and the screams 
of the Herons, forms fit music for such a scene. Standing knee-deep in the 
mire, you discharge your gun at one of the numerous birds that are breeding- 
high over head, when immediately such a deafening noise arises, that, if you 
have a companion with you, it were quite useless to speak to him. The 
frightened birds cross each other confusedly in their flight ; the young at- 
tempting to secure themselves, some of them lose their hold, and fall into 
the water with a splash ; a shower of leaflets whirls downwards from the 
tree-tops, and you are glad to make your retreat from such a place. Should 
you wish to shoot Herons, you may stand, fire, and pick up your game as 
long as you please ; you may obtain several species, too, for not only does 
the Great Blue Heron breed there, but the White, and sometimes the Night 
Heron, as well as the Anhiuga, and to such places they return year after 
year, unless they have been cruelly disturbed. 
The nest of the Blue Heron, in whatever situation it may be placed, is 
large and flat, externally composed of dry sticks, and matted with weeds and 
mosses to a considerable thickness. When the trees are large and conve- 
nient, you may see several nests on the same tree. The full complement of 
eggs which these birds lay is three, and in no instance have I found more. 
Indeed, this is constantly the case with all the large species with which I 
am acquainted, from Ardea ccerulea to Ardea occiclentalis ; but the smaller 
species lay more as they diminish in size, the Louisiana Heron having fre- 
quently four, and the Green Heron five, and even sometimes six. Those of 
the Great Blue Heron are very small compared with the size of the bird, 
measuring only two and a half inches by one and seven-twelfths ; they are of 
a dull bluish-white, without spots, rather rough, and of a regular oval form. 
The male and the female sit alternately, receiving food from each other, 
