I shall not soon forget my first introduction 
to the heronry on this island. It was on the 
first bright day we had after three days of 
heavy northeast storm, and the fourth day of 
my visit, that I started out from the miserable 
hut in which I had found shelter for the night, i 
with my men, to explore a portion of the tract, 
hitherto neglected by us. 
Immediately in the lee'of the sand-hill is a 
stagnant pool of dank,bad-smelling water, may¬ 
be one half mile long by from one hundred to 
five hundred feet in width. From out this lake 
grows a tall, nodding green plant, and on its 
bank the holly and cedar grow in all their na¬ 
tive luxuriance; the former trees are used ex¬ 
clusively by the Green Heron ( Butori des vi- 
r escens ) for their nests. Everything was covered 
with moisture and the early morning sun 
shining over the sand-hill tops reflected a mil¬ 
lion gems from every moss-decked tree. Taken 
v itli other surroundings I came to believe a 
heronry liot’such a dismal, filthy place after 
all. 
Probably two hundred and fifty pairs of this 
species were breeding on this ground. They are 
a shy bird, and fly away with a discordant 
squawk on the approach of man. Nests are gen- 
ally twenty feet or upwards from the giound, 
land at the time of my visit were egg laden. 1 
spent a pleasant morning in climbing to the 
nests, which are frail looking platforms placed 
without apparent care on the horizontal limbs, 
and so sparingly made of sticks that it is an 
easy matter to determine from below whether 
| they contained eggs. 
Five eggs was the largest number found in 
any set, and four was as often encountered. 
| When fresh, with the morning sun shining 
i through the leaves, it is a rare sight from a 
j treetop to look around and below at the great 
number of eggs on every tree. I took a good 
assortment of clean fresh sets of four and five 
eggs, and there is considerable difference both 
in size and intensity of coloring. 
1 14 , 1 . //■ A'K- 
Birdsof Chester County, Penn. 
Cyrus B.Ressel, Broil doun. Pa. 
30 . Ardea virescens (Linn.). Green Heron. 
Summer resident; common. Arrives first 
week in May. Nidification commences by the 
25 th of that month; eggs, five to six. Departs 
second week in October. 
v; &0. XIV. July. 1889 p.98 
