198 In 
the gloom above a harsh, guttural * quock, 
quock,” and know that it is a band of meht 
herons winging their way to their marshy 
feeding ground. They care not whether it be 
city or country that may lie beneath their 
line of flight, and I have often heard them 
from the streets of Boston, as im small, loose 
flocks they steered for the flats or sa‘t 
marshes. Usually, before morning, they are 
back in the thick of some cedar swamp, or 
similar roost; but frequently they will feed 
on the flats by day, especially the brown 
Heron 
Haunts 
sea. The tract consists mostly of scrub oaks, 
with a few maples and pitch pines sprinkled 
in, most of the trees not over thirty feet 
high. Late in April the rude, frail nests 
of loose sticks are built in any convenient 
crotch, usually about twenty feet up, though 
sometimes not over five feet. During the 
first ten days of May, most of the large, pale 
blue eges are laid, four or five to a nest, 
which is the customary number with most 
herons. At this visit the first of the young 
were beginning to hatch. As we entered 
Florida Heron Rookery. On this Island Were Breeding Louisiana, Little Blue, Snowy, and Yellow-Crowned Night Herons. 
speckled young of the year. I have fre- 
quently surprised them in their fishing along 
the creeks of the salt marshes, or by ditches 
that connect ponds, through which young 
herring pass. And, by the way, it is really 
surprising how many people do not know the 
difference between a heron and a herring! 
One of the strangest sights in bird-lfe is 
arookery of these night herons. The largest 
that I know of is (or was) on Cape Cod. I 
discovered it when a boy, and year by year, 
probably from time immemorial, the herons 
have resorted to this lonely spot near the 
the woods, the beautiful plumed birds, each 
with a loud, harsh squawk, began to fly 
out in large numbers. The trees, daubed 
white with excrement, were fairly crowded 
with nests, one in almost every possible 
fork or crotch, often six or eight to a tree. 
Standing in one place, I counted one hun- 
dred and five nests, without moving from 
my tracks. I think there were doubtless 
a thousand nests in that strip of woods. 
When I climbed to the tops of different 
trees, I found myself looking down upon a 
veritable blue sea 
eggs, eggs, eggs, in all 
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