I 
I 
_ — lii'cil. ijj. W . iVi. 
■■j’t ■ '-j'i‘7. f / 
The Largest Heronry. A very 'impor¬ 
tant discovery from an ornithological stand¬ 
point was made recently by Dr. 'William E. 
Hughes, the well-known ornithologist of 
Philadelphia, who is now with Lieutenant 
Peary’s expedition to Greenland and the 
arctic seas. Hr. Hughes has found the larg¬ 
est heronry existing within the knowledge 
of any scientist, in V alley Hills, a place near 
Valley Forge, Chester Co., Pa. It is certain¬ 
ly much larger than any heronry ever dis¬ 
covered in this country, and Dr. Hughes says 
no book on ornithology that he has been able 
to peruse gives a heronry of so many nests, 
In 1888, Dr. Hughes was on a little scientific 
expedition through Chester County. When 
he passed through Valley Hills he discovered 
on the trees of a small copse about 100 
heron nests. The nests were rather imper¬ 
fect, and it could be seen that the birds 
had just begun to settle there. In April last, 
Dr. Hughes, accompanied'by Dr. McCadden, 
a taxidermist of Philadelphia, determined to 
visit the interesting copse at Valley Hill to 
see how the herons were coming along. 
Much to his surprise he found the trees lit¬ 
erally covered with nests. Mr. McCadden 
assisted him in counting the homes of the 
birds and found they numbered over six 
hundred. In the following month Dr. 
Hughes returned to the heronry and found 
that the many eggs he had seen on his April 
visit had hatched and the young herons were 
there in great quantity. As far as Dr. 
Hughes has been able to ascertain, the great¬ 
est number of nests found in any heronry in 
this country and given in ornithological 
books has been less than one hundred. It 
was at Blue Rocks, Berks County. [Phila¬ 
delphia Press. 
-:-i- 
R-iCiwxfy 111 qUfcohiGfl. ' 
T^OwmidgeTm BU N E 
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1890. 
V_,- rl-.,T L. %*. y, j ArU’ .. 
j Two Latin-school lads, who look forward to 
jSaturday as the one day in the week when 
jthey may have a good time without let or hin¬ 
drance, took a small rifle and a box of BB 
cartridges along, last Saturday, as a promoter 
of their scientific knowledge. They are both 
interested in ornithology, and both shoot well 
I for youths of their age. They secured several 
specimens of minor consequence, and at last 
one of them spied in the top of a tall fir tree — 
little more than half a mile from Harvard 
square —a creature large enough to awaken 
all their enthusiasm. “Zip!” went the rifle, 
and a great bird, wounded, flew noisily from 
| the tree. In its unequal flight to earth it 
: struck the window of a laborer s cottage, and a 
I frightened man and woman instantly appeared. 
One lad grasped the struggling bird by the 
neck, the other seized the gun, and the speed 
they made in getting away from that house 
would have secured their reputation on any 
running track. A bottle of chloroform finished 
the work of the bullet, and the boys were de¬ 
ll] lighted to find that they had captured a fine 
. J male black-crowned night heron, measuring 
^forty-four inches from tip to tip. Three hours 
of hard work followed, at the end of which 
they were in possession of a specimen so neatly 
eprepared that it might well give satisfaction to 
collectors much more mature and experienced. 
U^XJL 0.0 1IO VO JJLC V Cl ©CCJL1 U11U. JLIlt? 
.vas in Norfolk county, Mass., until 
the present year; the birds have now, however, taken up 
their abode elsewhere, because of the almost ceaseless per¬ 
secution they have suffered. The species was the Night- 
heron or Quawk (Nyctiardea Gardeni ). The bird is by 
no means as graceful as the other herons in figure, being 
thicker, with a larger and clumsier neck ; as to color, how¬ 
ever, it is quite handsome, being white, slate, and lilac. 
It has the long nape feathers characteristic of the herons, 
rolled, as usual, into the likeness of a tube. The place 
in which they have hitherto bred is a swamp, wet, and 
difficult of access, with no turf to set foot on, owing to 
the shade of the swamp-cedars with which the quagmire 
is covered, whose slippery, mossy roots furnish a doubt¬ 
ful footing in some cases, and a formidable obstacle in 
others. The certainty of "slumping” through the moss, 
thereby going into the thick slime above the knees, the 
probability of missing one’s footing, and going down, full 
length, on breast or back, and the prospect of hard and 
disagreeable work in climbing to the nests, are among the 
allurements to the herons’ paradise. The birds undoubt¬ 
edly built there in 1861, though they were not found 
until June, 1862, when a gunner, breaking in upon their 
fancied security, shot over twenty for sport, threw them 
into a pile, and left them. 
All, of course, who cared for natural history, who were 
few; the idlers, who were more; and many w r ho had 
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