A flushed "Fly-up-the-creek" angles away awkwardly with dangling legs and a hoarse croak of surprise. They lack entirely the grace and beauty of movement given to their relatives.
A momentous day in my boyhood was the discovery of a nest with four eggs in a Canarsie swamp. Before finding the treasure I had seen one of the HERONS giving a tap dance exhibition on the muddy bank and had wondered why he was going thru such a comical performance. It was interrupted by a sudden side run for a stranded "killie" fish — which was carried at once into the reeds. (Perhaps an offering to its mate altho I saw no sign of another bird.)
They are said to dive completely under water after fish. I never witnessed this act.
NEST — a sketchy affair thru which the eggs generally can be seen from beneath; located in swamps or in woods sometimes quite a distance from water.
EGGS — 4 to 5; pale green.
United States and southern Canada east of Rocky Mountains.
A slender tree up to 70 feet high, distributed from Massachusetts southward to shores of Biscayne and Tampa Bays, Florida; from Pennsylvania thru Gulf States to Arkansas and Trinity River Valley, Texas.