216 BULLETIN 135, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



tipped, and white basally on the forehead, with short whitish plumes; 

 the auriculars are grayish, but mottled; the black areas in the head 

 are streaked with white and the chin and throat are white; the neck 

 is drab; the new plumage of the mantle is a mixture of brown and 

 blackish and sometimes there are a few long, plumelike feathers in 

 the back; the under parts are striped, much as in the juvenal plum- 

 age. This is the first nuptial plumage, but it is probably not a 

 breeding plumage. 



Summer and fall specimens are so scarce in collections that I have 

 been unable to trace what takes place during these seasons, but there 

 is probably another complete molt, perhaps two molts, between the 

 first nupital and the second nuptial plumages. I have, however, 

 seen a small series of specimens, taken in March, which show various 

 stages of a complete prenuptial molt into the second nuptial plumage, 

 which is probably a breeding plumage. This plumage is nearly 

 adult, but the crown is more or less brown and the chin and throat 

 are partially black, but centrally grayish and whitish; the upper 

 parts, particularly the wing coverts, are tinged with brown, instead 

 of being clear gray and black; the under parts are tinged with brown; 

 and the occipital plumes are nearly as in the adult. 



A complete postnuptial molt, beginning in July or August, produces 

 the fully adult plumage, with the wholly black throat, the white 

 crown and the clear grays, blacks, and whites, without any tinges of 

 brown. The young bird is then about 2}^ years old. For lack of 

 material, collected at the proper seasons, I can not trace the molts 

 of the adults. 



Food. — The yellow-crowned night heron is not quite so nocturnal 

 in its feeding habits as the black-crowned night heron ; it feeds more 

 or less during the night, but it also feeds commonly at all hours of 

 the day, chiefly, however, in the morning and evening hours. Fish 

 seem to constitute a comparatively small portion of its diet, which 

 is largely made up of crabs and crawfish; this may account for its 

 more diurnal habits. Audubon (1840) says that it is not at all 

 delicate in the choice of its food, but swallows ' ' snails, fish, small snakes, 

 crabs, crays, lizards, and leeches, as well as small quadrupeds, and 

 young birds that have fallen from their nests." He also says that 

 it appears to seize its food "with little concern, picking it up from 

 the ground in the manner of a domestic fowl." 



Mr. Maynard (1896) says: 



The food of the yellow-crowned night herons is mainly land crabs, which they 

 are very expert at catching, killing and breaking to pieces. They will eat all 

 kinds, excepting possibly the large white crab, a species which often measures 

 14 inches across the body and claws, and which weighs about 1 pound. This 

 animal appears to be too strong and bulky for the herons to manage, but they 

 will kill the black crab, a crustacean which measures nearly or quite a foot 

 across the body and claws. But a favorite crab with this heron is a smaller 



