BIRDS OF MINNESOTA. 95 



toes nearly equal; head with elongated feathers above and 

 behind; these and interscapulars and scapulars lanceolate; neck 

 short, bare behind inferiorly; tibia feathered nearly through- 

 out; tail of twelve feathers; top of head and body above, glossy 

 green; coverts edged with brownish yellow; neck dark purplish 

 chestnut; chin and central line of throat white; body beneath 

 plumbeous ash. 



Length, 15; wing, 7.50; tarsus, 2; bill, 2.40. 



Habitat, Canada and Oregon, southward to northern South 

 America. 



NYCTICORAX NYCTICORAX NiEVIUS (Bodd^rt). (202.) 

 BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT HERON. 



I find this common species much more frequently in the tax 

 idermists' shops than in its haunts, although I do so occasion- 

 ally when on their grounds at twilight, and I find they breed 

 regularly very near to if not still within the city limits. Their 

 nocturnal habits protect them from observation, but it is 

 known that they roost during the day in the tamarack swamps 

 and come forth at twilight to seek their food along the borders 

 of streams, ditches and on the marshes. The nests are 

 constructed about the tenth of May, or a little later, in the 

 tamarack swamps, on the trees, and are formed of sticks. 

 More than one may occupy the same tree, but the only night- 

 heronry I have ever seen had not to exceed a half dozen nests, 

 unless I failed to see them, which might have been the case 

 with all of my diligence, for they were well concealed in the 

 thick branches of the trees which stood in a foot or more of 

 water near one of our smaller lakes, or ponds, as the people 

 from Maine call them. This breeding place has long been 

 broken up. I find through one of my most reliable and inde- 

 fatigable correspondents in the southern part of the State that 

 this species is quite common there. He met them in nearly all 

 of the summer months of their summer residence there. (J. 

 McClintock). Mr. Lewis, perfectly familiar with all of their 

 habits, reports them common through Becker and Polk coun- 

 ties, and believes them nearly universally distributed through- 

 out the northern and western divisions of the State. It cannot 

 be called a numerous species in any other than a relative 

 sense here. At Thief river there is a heronry of the species, 

 which, if carefully observed during a season or two, might be 

 of much value in making numerical estimates. (Washburn). 



Their food does not differ materially from that of other 

 herons I think. 



