THE COMMON BITTERN 173 
THE NIGHT HERON 
NYCT{CORAX GRISEUS: 
Head, back, and scapulars, black, with blue and green reflections; on the 
back of the head three very long narrow white feathers ; lower part of 
the back, wings, and tail, pearl-grey ; forehead, streak over the eyes, and 
all the lower parts, white; beak black, yellow at the base ; irides red ; 
feet yellowish green. Young birds have no crest; the upper plumage 
is dull brown streaked with yellow ; wing-coverts and primaries marked 
with fish-shaped streaks, which are yellowish; under parts dull white, 
mottled with brown and ash; bill greenish; irides and feet brown. 
Length twenty-one inches. Eggs pale blue. 
THE Night Heron is a bird of wide geographical range; but, on 
account of its nocturnal habits and the rarity of its occurrence 
in this country, it has been little observed. It is, however, not 
uncommon on migration. A specimen was brought to me at 
Helston, Cornwall, about the year 1836, which had been shot in 
the dusk of the evening, on Goonhilly Downs. Its long and delicate 
crest had been stupidly tied into a knot, and by the bruised con- 
dition of these feathers the specimen, if it still exists in any museum, 
may yet be identified. 
The Night Heron is said to be not uncommon on the shores of 
the Baltic, in the wide marshes of Bretagne and Lorraine, and on 
the banks of the Rhone. It passes the day concealed among the 
thick foliage of trees and shrubs, and feeds only by night. It builds 
its nest in trees, and lays four or five eggs. 
THE COMMON BITTERN 
BOTAURUS STELLARIS 
Moustaches and crown black; upper plumage yellowish rust-red, spotted 
with dusky ; the feathers of the neck elongated, marked with brown zigzag 
lines ; primaries barred with rust-red and dusky grey ; plumage beneath 
paler, marked with oblong dusky streaks ; upper mandible brown, edged 
with yellow; lower, orbits, and feet, greenish yellow; irides bright 
yellow. Length two feet four inches. Eggs dingy green. 
MACGILLIVRAY, who was as well acquainted as most ornithologists 
with birds haunting moors and swamps, admits that he never 
heard one, and thinks that a brother naturalist, who describes what, 
no doubt, he heaid, mistook for the booming of the Bittern the 
drumming of a Snipe. Lord Lilford tells us that a lady of his 
acquaintance told him that as a young wife, living near marshes, 
she often was kept awake by the booming of Bitterns, 
