NIOHT HERON. 487 



tific name of Ni/cticorax Gardeni for the Niglit Heron, as it 

 had the effect of uniting two birds, parent and offspring, 

 which had previously been considered as two distinct species. 

 The Zoological Society are seldom without living specimens 

 of this bird in different states of plumage : and in January 

 1834, as will be seen by the printed Proceedings of the 

 Society for that year, page 27, three examples were exhibited 

 at the evening meeting, one of which supplied the interesting- 

 link in this species, being a young bird which united in its 

 plumage the brown spotted wing of the Gardenian Heron, 

 with the black head and ash-coloured back of the Night 

 Heron : thus exhibiting the change from the young to the 

 adult bird. 



The Night Heron is well known to the North American 

 Ornithologists, and interesting accounts of its habits in that 

 country will be found in the works of Wilson and Mr. 

 Audubon. 



In this country the Night Heron has been killed in Sus- 

 sex, Dorsetshire, Devonshire, Flintshire, Anglesey, and in 

 Ireland. In the inland counties of Buckinghamshire, Bed- 

 fordshire, and Oxfordshire, and on the eastern side of our 

 island in Kent, Suffolk, Norfolk, and twice in Scotland. 

 Specimens have been obtained in France, Spain, Portugal, 

 Provence, and Italy. The Zoological Society have received 

 specimens from Erzeroom, and M. Menetries found it near 

 the Caspian Sea. It has also been brought by different 

 naturalists from the Cape of Good Hope. It inhabits India, 

 China, and Japan. 



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, green ; the irides crimson : 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 it is said that the number is greater ; scapulars. 



