588 
They lay squirming 
in the nests, unable 
even to sit up, and 
suggested reptiles 
rather than birds. 
The common say- 
ing is that the cor- 
morants are breed- 
ing every month in 
the year save one— 
but which that one 
was, nobody seems 
to know. In only 
one nest were the 
young of good size, 
and it was only with 
considerable — diffi- 
culty that I could 
even take snapshots 
of them, balancing 
myself upon the top- 
most twigs of the 
tree, not without 
some solicitude for the welfare of my neck 
and limbs, and for the heavy camera. 
There were other nests close by, and the 
mother cormorants were solicitous for their 
young, alighting near me, and allowing 
me some snapshots at them. They might 
well be anxious, for the naked young can- 
not bear the hot rays of the sun, and they 
would have died, even during my short 
stay, had I not covered them with leaves. 
Everywhere on the island there were 
many nests of the 
little Louisiana her- a bul 
on. Some of them ™& \iamE 
still held eggs—cu- faa 
riously, in this rook- 
ery almost always 
three, whereas last 
year, in central 
Florida, I invaria- 
bly found four or 
five toanest. Wher 
ever the young her- 
ons were large 
enough to stand, 
they would usually 
scramble out of the 
nest when I tried to 
photograph them. 
It was only with 
much difficulty that 
I finally secured a 
picture of a whole 
family of young at 
Half-grown American Egrets on Nest. 
The Great Cuthbert Rookery 
home. Ialso caught a well-grown young- 
ster and posed him upon a branch, de- 
spite his strong inclination to leave me. 
Then came an inspection of the com- 
paratively small colony of the little blue 
heron along the eastern shore of the island, 
where they nested in the mangroves out 
over the water. There were usually four 
blue eggs in their nests, or varying num- 
bers of young. At first these young are 
pure white; later some slaty-blue feathers 
Young Little Blue Heron, which is White in Youth, Turning to Dark Bluish-gray in 
the Adult. 
