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LITTLE WHITE HERON. 
On the nineteenth of May I visited an extensive breeding place 
of the Little White Heron, among the red cedars of Sommerses 
beach, on the coast of Cape May. The situation was very se- 
questered, bounded on the land side by a fresh water marsh or 
pond, and sheltered from the Atlantic by ranges of sand-hills. The 
cedars, tho not high, were so closely crowded together as to render 
it difficult to penetrate through among them. Some trees contain- 
ed three, others four nests, built wholly of sticks. Each had in it 
three eggs of a pale greenish blue color, and measuring an inch 
and three quarters in length, by an inch and a quarter in thick- 
ness. Forty or fifty of these eggs were cooked, and found to be 
well tasted; the white was of a bluish tint, and almost transpa- 
rent, tho boiled for a considerable time ; the yolk very small in 
quantity. The birds rose in vast numbers, but without clamour, 
alighting on the tops of the trees around, and watching the result 
in silent anxiety. Among them were numbers of the Night Heron, 
and two or three Purple-headed Herons.* Great quantities of egg- 
shells lay scattered under the trees, occasioned by the depredations 
of the Crows, who were continually hovering about the place. On 
one of the nests I found the dead body of the bird itself, half de- 
voured by the Hawks, or Crows. She had probably perished in 
defence of her eggs. 
The Little White Heron is seen at all times during summer 
among the salt marshes, watching and searching for food; or pass- 
ing, sometimes in flocks, from one part of a bay to another. They 
often make excursions up rivers and inlets; but return regularly in 
the evening to the red cedars on the beach to roost. I found these 
birds on the Mississippi, early in June, as far up as Fort Adams, 
roaming about among the creeks and inundated woods. The young 
of this species are generally very fat, and esteemed by some people 
as excellent eating. 
* A. ceerulea. 
