NIGHT HERON. 
107 
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 im- 
memorial, by from eighty to one hundred pair 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 per- 
sonally 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 Thomp- 
son’s point, ten or twelve miles below Philadelphia ; which having 
been repeatedly attacked and plundered by a body of Crows, after 
many severe rencounters the Herons finally abandoned the place. 
Several of these breeding places occur among the red cedars on 
the seabeach of Cape May, intermixed with those of the Little 
White Heron, 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 co- 
lor. 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 drop- 
ped by accident and neglected to pick up. 
On entering the swamp in the neighborhood of one of these 
breeding places, the noise of the old and the young would almost in- 
duce one to suppose that two or three hundred Indians were choking 
or throttling each other. The instant an intruder is discovered, 
the whole rise in the air in silence, and remove to the tops of the 
trees in another part of the woods ; while parties of from eight to 
ten make occasional circuits over the spot to see what is going on. 
When the young are able they climb to the highest part of the 
trees ; but, knowing their inability, do not attempt to fly. Tho it 
is probable that these nocturnal birds do not see well during the 
