NIGHT HERON 29 
DESCRIPTIVE CHARACTERS. 
PLUMAGE. Adult male nuptial.—Top of head, nape 
of neck, and back, glossy greenish-black; rest of neck’, 
wings and tail, grey ; “forehead and fine stripe over the eye, 
breast and abdomen, white; the crest is best developed 
in old males, and consists of three or more long, thin, 
white plumes; these are erectile, and when the bird 
becomes excited, they are raised, together with the shorter 
feathers of the crown, like those ‘of. an angry cockatoo. 
(Payne-Gallwey, ‘ Letters to Young Shooters,’ Third Series, 
pp. 223, 224.) 
\ 
Fic. 6.—HEAD OF NIGHT HERON. 2 Nat size. 
Adult female nuptial.mDuller in colour than the male, 
with a shorter head-crest. 
Adult winter, male and female.—The long plumes of the 
crest are absent. 
Immature, male and female.—Back and wings, nut-brown 
with lhghter streaks and white spots; breast and abdomen 
striped with white, yellow and brown ; crest absent. 
Brax. Black, the lower segment having a grey shade. 
Fret. Yellow. 
TIripEs. Bright red. 
1 The neck and dorsal-plumes of the Night Heron are not long and 
filamentous. 
