198 ARDEID^. 



(Ibis, 1861, p. 58). In some parts the Night-Heron makes 

 its nest on the reeds, and in the swamps of Lake Michigan 

 Mr. Nelson found over fifty nests placed in the midst of 

 particularly dense bunches of wild rice, the stiff last year's 

 stalks of which, converging near the roots, formed a con- 

 venient base for their support. The nests were all well- 

 built structures composed of pieces of dead rice-stalks ; their 

 diameter was from twelve to fifteen inches, and a man could 

 stand on them without doing them any perceptible injury. 

 The eggs, from three to five in number, are of a pale 

 greenish-blue, measuring about 2 by 1-4 in. Judging from 

 Swinhoe's experience, the bird commences sitting on the first 

 egg laid, and there is an interval of two days between each 

 egg. In Europe incubation takes place in May. 



The food of the Night-Heron consists of water-insects and 

 their larvae, worms, snails, small fish, and frogs. The note of 

 the bird is a mournful qaa-a, seldom uttered except as a call- 

 note in the dusk, or when its breeding colonies are disturbed. 



The adult Night-Heron has the beak nearly black above 

 and at the point ; the base of the lower mandible and the 

 naked skin around the eyes, bluish-grey ; the irides crim- 

 son ; the top of the head and the back of the neck black ; 

 the elongated occipital plumes white, and generally three in 

 number, but in very old birds the number is greater, and as 

 many as ten have been counted by Mr. Rodd and others ; 

 scapulars, interscapulars, and back, nearly black, glossed 

 with green; wings, wing-coverts, all the quill- feathers, 

 secondaries, tertials, and tail-feathers, ash-grey ; throat and 

 neck almost white, passing into dull greyish-white on the 

 sides ; breast, belly, thighs, flanks, and under tail-coverts, 

 nearly pure white ; legs and toes yellow ; claws black. The 

 female is slightly duller in plumage than the male. Length, 

 from the point of the beak to the end of the tail, about 

 twenty-three inches ; from the Carpal joint to the end of the 

 wing, twelve inches. 



The young Night- Heron has the upper mandible of the 

 beak of a dark brown, the edge on each side lighter in 

 colour, and, like the under mandible and the naked skin 



