Ardea herodias. 1896. Lake Umbagog. August 9³ 10² 11④ 12² 13⁴/14² 15² 16² 17² 18³ 19² 20² 22⁴ 24¹ 30¹ 31③ 25² 26¹ 27² 28² 29¹ 30¹ September 1¹ 2¹ 3¹ 4¹ 5³ 7² 10³ 11¹ 12³ 13¹ 14² 15¹ 16² 17² 21¹ 22¹ 24¹ 27² 28¹ 29③ 30¹ October 2¹ 3¹ Sept. 4. ½ day, at 10 a.m., I saw for the first time, I think, in my whole experience, a Great Blue Heron actively engaged in fishing. He alighted on a point in Leonard's Pond and after looking keenly about for a moment waded out into the water up to his belly and began marching back & forth striking several times each minute. He carried his neck stretched out to nearly its full length and invariably held to one side (low to one side) of the central axis of the body with his head & bill turned up backwards as if he were blinded in one eye. This posture was assumed of course. They are rather rapid but made with as much deliberation as those of a hen picking up corn. The whole performance was as different as possible from what I had imagined it. The bird often stood motionless, walking or rarely paused for more than a moment at a time. Once I saw him pull up a trout fish which he shook violently & then swallowed. All his other attempts were either fruitless or he caught fishes so small that I could not see them (he was 100 yds. away & I had a good glass). This was something like his fishing attitude: Profile view. (bird seen from behind showing position of head & neck with relation to body.) 21