1865.] NOTES ON THE NIGHT-HERON. 53 



with other bodies, that we infer that these genera may have been 

 attached to the sea-bottom o* to some objects during their growth. 

 We admit therefore that the family of Graptolitidae, as now 

 extended, may include both free ani fixed forms * 



A FEW NOTES ON THE NIGHT-HERON. 



By Henry G. Vbnxor. 



While our little hawk-owl (Surnia ulula) ranks as an intermediate 

 species between the hawks and the owls proper, our night-heron 

 shares partly the structure of both heron and bittern ; its habits, 

 food, and color of eggs are however decidedly those of the heron . 

 It is called night-heron from its nocturnal habits, and has been thus 

 described: — " Bill black; crown, hind head, back, and scapulars, 

 glossy blackish green ; from the hind head proceed three long, 

 rounded, pure white feathers or plumes; wings, rump, and tail, 

 light ash-color ; neck, and lower parts, a white, with the most 

 delicate tinge of cream-color ; iris, fiery red ; legs, yellow ? Length 

 of the adult bird, from twenty-six to twenty-eight inches ; extent 

 four feet." The young bird has not the head-plumes. About the 

 middle or end of March, numbers of these birds leave their winter- 

 quarters in the Southern United States (where many remain all 

 the year round), and proceed northward, settling down in squads, 

 — some along the Atlantic coast, others on the river-shores and 

 marshes of the Middle States, while a small number reach the 

 borders of Canada, about the middle of April. At the foot of the 

 Lachine rapids, in the St. Lawrence, is Nun's Island, on the upper 

 part of which, and hardly out of hearing of the city noise, many rare 

 and beautiful birds spend their breeding-season in peace and 

 quiet, and among others the night-heron. I have tried, in vain, 

 to discover the period when these birds first visited and built 

 in this island. From all accounts, and judging from the appear- 

 ance of the heronry, it is very ancient. It is a well-known 

 habit of these birds to return year after year to their 

 favorite breeding-grounds ; and it is only when the trees 

 have been felled, or they have been unusually persecuted, that 

 they will forsake an old locality. Not only do they frequent 



* Several papers on the Graptolites will be found in the previous vol- 

 umes of this journal. See especially the volume for 1858, pp. 139, 161. 



