HERON FAMILY 



195 



>tnn(lin,n" rigid, and knee-deep in 

 liiq- lisliernian does, the Nighi 



water, as that 

 Heron moves 



Pliutu by H. r. Middlctoii 



YOUNG NIGHT HERONS 



ahdul liriskiy, hdiding its head lowered and its 

 ileek curved, all ready for the quicK stroke which 

 nie.ms de.ath to the frog or fish at which it is 

 aimed. 



This Heron's most interesting characteristic 

 is its gregariousness, which causes it to collect in 

 large colonies during the nesting period. These 

 heronries usually are situated in an isolated 

 patch of \v(Jods, and their population may in- 

 clude several hundred pairs of birds, not to men- 

 tion as many groups of four or five \-oung birds. 

 In<leed, as a pair will freipiently r;iise two broods 

 in a season, it is not uncommon to find the adult 

 birds feeding at the same time two sets of 

 youngsters, one composed of fledglings in the nest 

 and the other of birds able to clamber about in 

 the branches. 



YELLOW-CROWNED NIGHT HERON 

 Nyctanassa violacea { Liiiii<riis) 



.\. O r Vumlifr .'o.i 



General Description, — Length. J4 inches. Plumage, 

 blui^h-Kray. lighter belciw. Head, crested and. in breed- 

 ing iilumage, with a few long white cord-like plumes 

 from back of crown. 



Color. — Adults: Top of head and patch under eye, 

 creamy white; sides of head and chin, black; rest of 

 plumage, bluish-gray, darker on back, the feathers with 

 black centers and pale edges ; lighter below ; head and 

 neck, and most of crest, white tinged icith Tvrv ptilr 

 tawny; wings and tail, dusky-slate; bill, black; feet, 

 black and yellow; iris, orange; lores and space around 

 eye, greenish. YouNt; : Above, brownish-gray witli a 

 strong olive tinge, streaked and spotted with brownish- 

 yellow ; below, streaked with brown and white; sides 



III licail and neck, yellowish-brown streaked with 

 darker; top of head and neck variegated with white; 

 bill, black with much greenish-yellow below ; lores and 

 legs, greenish-yellow ; iris, yellow. 



Nest and Eggs.— Nest : A platform of sticks in 

 trees of swampy areas. Eggs: 4 to 6, dull bluish. 



Distribution. — Warm temperate and tropical ."Kmer- 

 ica ; breeds from southern Lower California, Kansas, 

 southern Illinois, southern Indiana, and South Carolina 

 south to P.razil and Peru ; casual north to Colorado, 

 Ontario. Massachusetts. Maine, and Nova Scotia; 

 winters from southern Lower California and southern 

 Florida southv/ard. 



Although the name of Yellow-crowned Night 

 Heron suggests that this bird is a " night " bird, 

 in reality it is quite as diurnal in its habits as 

 any of the more common Herons. Many times 

 I have come upon it in the fresh-water marshes 

 or on mud flats by the sea where it was evidently 

 feeding and it would fly away with all the assur- 

 ance of a bird whose sight was unimpaired by 

 the sunlight. It is a solitary species and is little 

 known to many bird-students. Rarely are more 

 than two or three found at a time and generally 

 they are seen singly. It is a southern species 

 and probably never breeds north of Illinois and 

 North Carolina. Wayne states that they " breed 

 only in snuiil colonies of two or three pairs." 

 This refers to the South Carolina birds of which 

 he writes, Init in Florida 1 have found the facts 

 to be otherwise. In that State I have examined 

 several of their colonies and they numbered from 

 twelve to twenty jiairs in each instance. Ap- 



DrawinR Ijy Henry riuirst^ui 



YELLOW-CROWNED NIGHT HERON (J nat. size) 

 A solitary and little-known species 



