NYCTIARDEA GRISEA N^VIA : NIGHT HERON. 265 



with white. Quills and tail-feathers greenish-dusky, with a 

 glaucous bloom ; edge of wing white, and usually some of the 

 quills white-tipped. Lores and iris yellow ; bill greenish-black, 

 much of the under mandible yellow ; legs greenish-yellow. 

 Length, 1 6.00-1 8. oo ; extent about 25.00 ; wing, 6.50-7.50; bill, 

 2.50 ; tarsus, 2.00 ; middle toe and claw about the same ; tibiae 

 bare i.oo or less. 



A common summer resident, arriving during the 

 middle or latter part of April, and remaining until or 

 into October. It is generally distributed in suitable 

 places, those which are watery enough to yield proper 

 food, and sufficiently well-wooded to afford the privacy 

 and shelter which Herons require. The nest is con- 

 structed in May ; it is a rude platform of loosely arrayed 

 twigs, placed upon some bush or wide spreading tree not 

 far from the water. The usual altitude is 10 to 30 

 feet from the ground ; an apple-tree is sometimes 

 selected. The eggs, usually five or six in number, are 

 pale greenish-blue, like those of other Herons, rather 

 elliptical than ovoidal in shape, measuring about 1.50 X 

 1. 1 8. A correspondent and friendly critic, who helps 

 me to revise these proofs, remarks, that this biography is 

 " as thin as the bird itself." But it is absolutely neces- 

 sary to economize space, and I generally prefer to be 

 brief in the cases of the best-known birds. 



NIGHT HERON; QUA-BIRD ; SQUAWK. 

 NYCTIARDEA GRISEA N^VIA (Bodd.} Allen. 



Chars Of medium size, with short legs and very stout bill, about 

 as long as tarsus or middle toe and claw. No peculiar plumes, 

 except two or three extremely long slender feathers springing in a 



