;U8 



Itroi-diiig places would induce oue to suppose that two 

 Of tliiee hundred Indians were choking or throttling 

 each other. The same writer, in referring to examina- 

 tions which he made, states that the teeth of the 

 jjectinated claw were thirty-five or forty in number, 

 ;ind as they contained particles of the down of the 

 bird, showed evidently from this circumstance that 

 thoy act the part of a comb to rid the bird of vermin 

 in those parts which it cannot reach with its l)ill. 



FOND OF GOLD FISH. 



A gentleman residing near West Chester, some yeaas 

 ago, had large numbers of gold-fishes in a pond near 

 his residence. One day he caught twenty-five of these 

 fish and placed them in a small pool, intending to re- 

 move them the following morning. "About bedtime," 

 he said, "I heard a loud squawking, and going out saw 

 two Night Herons actively engaged in catching these 

 fish. I shot one of these robbers, and on making an 

 investigation found only one of the fish remaining." 

 The late Isaac G. Darlington of West Chester, in- 

 formed me he on one occasion shot a Night Heron in 

 the act of killing his young ducks on a pond near his 

 house. 



'•An incident may illustrate the habits of the Night Heron, 

 and perhaps of the whole family. A Night Heron had been 

 noticed for several days sitting- on a tree near a branch of 

 White Clay creek. It was at length shot and brought to me. 

 with the tail of a large fish projecting four inches beyond its 

 bill. On removing the fish (a sucker Catostcmus. which must 

 have been twelve inches long), its head and shoulders— except 

 the bony portions — were eaten away by the gastric liquor of the 

 stomach."— Michener. 



THET SUBSIST MAINLY ON PISH. 



I have examined the stomachs of twenty odd of 

 these Herons, adults and young, which have been shot 



