6 
NIGHT HERON, OR QUA-BIRD. 
The night heron arrives in Pennsylvania early in April, and 
immediately takes possession of his former breeding place, 
which is usually the most solitary and deeply shaded part of a 
cedar swamp. Groves of swamp oak, in retired and inun- 
dated places, are also sometimes chosen, and the males not 
unfrequently select tall woods, on the banks of the river, to 
roost in during the day.. These last regularly direct their 
course, about the beginning of evening twilight, towards the 
marshes, uttering, in a hoarse and hollow tone, the sound Qua^ 
which by some has been compared to that produced by the 
retchings of a person attempting to vomit. At this hour, also, 
all the nurseries in the swamps are emptied of their inhabitants, 
who disperse about the marshes, and along the ditches and 
river shore, in quest of food. Some of these breeding places 
have been occupied every spring and summer for time imme- 
morial, by from eighty to one hundred pairs of qua-birds. In 
places where the cedars have been cut down for sale, the birds 
have merely removed to another quarter of the swamp ; but 
when personally attacked, long teased, and plundered, they 
have been known to remove from an ancient breeding place, 
in a body, no one knew where. Such was the case with one 
on the Delaware, near Thompson’s Point, ten ot twelve miles 
below Philadelphia; which having been repeatedly attacked 
and plundered by a body of crows, after many severe rencoun- 
ters, the herons finally abandoned the place. Several of these 
breeding places occur among the red cedars on the sea beach 
of Cape May, intermixed with those of the little egret, green 
bittern, and blue heron. The nests are built entirely of sticks, 
in considerable quantities, with frequently three and four nests 
on the same tree. The eggs are generally four in number, 
measuring two inches and a quarter in length, by one and three 
quarters in thickness, and of a very pale light blue colour. 
The ground or marsh below is bespattered with their excre- 
ments lying all around like whitewash, with feathers, broken 
egg shells, old nests, and frequently small fish, which they 
have dropt by accident, and neglected to pick up. 
