200 DAVENPORT ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



in the state as a rather rare summer resident. In southeastern 

 Iowa the species appears to be less frequent. Walter G. Savage 

 reports one specimen shot ten years ago, the only specimen cap- 

 tured in that localit}^ (Hillsboro, Van Buren county). Praeger 

 and Currier both report it as a rare visitant in L,ee county (the 

 Keokuk district), and Matson records one specimen at Mediapo- 

 lis, Des Moines county. 



Paul C. Woods describes a heronry near Spencer, Iowa, visited 

 in June, 1895, in an oak thicket, "which must have extended 80 

 rods and hardl}- a tree that did not have one or two nests on it. 

 The trees were rather small, and as they were very scraggly and 

 inclined to sway, the nests were somewhat difficult to reach." 

 (Iowa Orn., i, 2, 1895, 13). Dr. Trostler writes that the species 

 is a "rare summer resident in Mills county. Dr. R. H. Wolcott, 

 myself and party took a set of five eggs south of Manawa Lake, 

 in Mills county, Iowa, May 15, 1904." 



The Black-crowned Night Heron is a common summer resident 

 in Winnebago and Hancock counties. I have observed great 

 numbers at Rice Lake (Winnebago) in early June, and at Goose 

 Lake (Hancock) the last week of May. Dr. B. H. Bailey found 

 them "very common at Eagle Lake (Hancock), July 17-21, 1902, 

 flying and squawking all night. No signs of a rooker}-. Known 

 locally as "Lake Owls." In these localities the species is seldom 

 seen along the streams in spring and early summer, but after the 

 first of August birds in brown juvenile plumage are common, fly- 

 ing up from almost every bend in the streams. The species 

 doubtless breeds at many points in the state, where it is -found in 

 summer, nesting either in trees or in reed}^ marshes. Great num- 

 bers breed annually at Heron Lake, Jackson county, Minn., mak- 

 ing their nests in clumps of reeds. 



Genus Nyctanassa Stejnejer. 



76. (203). A'Viianassa vio/acca (Linn.). Yellow-crowned Night 

 Heron. 

 The Yellow-crowned Night Heron is a southern species, rarely 

 venturing farther north than southern Illinois, and can only be 

 accounted a rare straggler in Iowa. Audubon, in his "Journals," 

 (ii, 481), under date of May 10, 1843, records two Yellow-crowned 

 Night Herons near Council Bluffs. "One was killed at Omaha, 



