The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-07-16
FROM THE SWAMP's DEPTH.
The Night Heron and the SOIitudes
of Its Home.
From the New York Sun.

From the New York Sun.
''The night heron is one of the most in
tresting of all the creatures that inhabit
the great cedar swamps of the South, -
said naturalist land the cedar swamps
themselves are sources of unending de-
light 10 the naturalist. I don't suppose
the lay person would find them So To one
used to the varied ways and works of ma
ture the pine forest of America, with its
dark, dense foliage its unbroken and per-
petual shade. and its constant moan and
sigh, seems a place to strike even the
most cheerful with gloom, and the most
unmoved with awe, but let him visit a ce-
OAR swamp once! There tall straight
trunks, a hundred feet high, grow so close
together that a man can barely squeeze
himself between them. No branches
spread from them except at their tops
and there the foliage mats itself so
thickly as TO shut out the day. The
ground, if ground it may be called, is soft
bog. Upon il the ruins of former trees
lie piled in confusion. The PROSTATE logs
are covered with green moss damp almost
as a sponge just from the water. Thick
gnarled iaurels choke even the narrow
thoroughfare that one might otherwise
find. At each step one takes in making
MS way over the lIGdCHeTOuS BOTTOM. even
where the degree of its unstable quality
is apparent, he sinks to his knees as he
goes, and he is apt TO plunge to the waist
in pools that have quickly filed the hol-
lows left where trees have been uprooted
and which great mats of green moss hide
from the sight In those, at times. the
alligator loves TO Turk and by them the
venomous water moccasin lies low for
prey.
I'm calm weather, but for the hollow
cries of the heron and the uncanny voice
of unseen fowls and birds that haunt the
depths the silnece of death would prevail
in the cedar swamp. slight wind moves
the topping branches to plaintive, MOURN
full soughing In a gale the tall stems
wave to and fro like the masts of vessels
in a storm. They rub against each other
and produce strange, weird sounds that
startle the living inmates of the swamp
and stranger weirder sounds and sights
odd beyond description combine to set the
untutured visitor to wondering how such
things can be, and to wishing that he were
home. But the cedear swamps are sources
of true delight 10 the naturalist. I used to
love the Dismal Swamp of Virginia. ana
the great Alligator Swamp Of Hyde
county, North Carolina, beyond words TO
tell. But man is spelling them. Man
has taken to going into them and chop
ping away their aged trees. He is cutting
through the soitudcs.
II is to these cedar swamps that the night
heron resorts IN the spring, takes posses
sion of its old haunts and rears its young.
The heron builds its nest In the tops of
the tallest cedars, or, rather, repairs the
nest that has been the domicile of its an
cestors for time out of mind The nest is
made Of sticks and lined with twigs. and
is 80 large that it occupies the entire avail
able space afforded by one tree. The moth
er herons lays four eggs. They are of a
size between a hens egg and ducks egg.
They have shells not much thicker than
ordinary writing paper and are Of a sea-
green color. Three weeks after the hatch
ing begins the young herons come out of
the eggs and Immediately creep from the
nest They seek the topmost branches of
the tree, where they cling and clatter They
keep up continual croaking, and as each
tree has a hungry brood In its top the hub
hub al this period of the heron's career Is
something that once heard can never be
forgotten. Added to the babel Of sound pro
ceeiing from the young herons Is the shrill
cry or the old birds, as If they were trying
to quiet tic young ones with promises OF