112 C. II. Merriatn Birds of Connecticut. 



that they sometimes stop at Faulkner's Island in spring. Breeds late 

 in May and in early June. 



217. Nyctiardea grisea, var. naevia (Boddert) Allen. Night Heron. 

 A common summer resident. Breeds in Pine and Heron Swamps, 



near New Haven, and in several other places about the State, and on 

 islands off the coast. Mr. A. J. Dayan started a small flock on Lake 

 Whitney, April 24th, 1877, and they alighted on a tree. On his near 

 approach all took flight but one, which he brought down, and an 

 examination proved that it had a well marked cataract in the eye 

 facing the direction from which he approached. This is an interest- 

 ing fact in Ornithological pathology. Remains into October. Mr. 

 W. W. Coe, of Portland, Conn., on the 17th of April, 1872, visited a 

 " Heronry" of this species, at Rocky Hill, Conn. He writes : " Saw 

 hundreds of nests, each containing from two to five eggs. Eight and 

 even ten nests were frequently found on one tree, and the same nest 

 often contained fresh eggs, eggs half hatched, and young birds. 

 The trees were white from the excrements of the birds, and looked as 

 if they had all been whitewashed ; nothing could grow under them."* 



NOTE. The Yellow-crowned Night Heron (Nyctiardea violocea) 

 has been taken in Massachusetts, by Mr. Vickery (Oct., 1862),f and 

 doubtless occurs as a rare accidental visitor. 



218. BotauniS minor (Gmelin) Boie. Bittern; Stake-driver. 



A common summer resident. Arrives in April (Apr. 26, 1875, 

 Sage), remaining till November. Linsley relates the following amus- 

 ing anecdotes concerning this species: "I obtained a fine specimen 

 of the American Bittern two years since, which had previously given 

 great alarm to many of our inhabitants by its peculiarly doleful and 

 mournful sounds at evening. One man who was laboring near the 

 swamp, it is said, ran a mile in the greatest consternation, alleging 

 that ' the d 1 was after him.' It is also stated by several of our 

 most respectable inhabitants, that forty-seven years since, [1790] one 

 hundred men united in a company on the Sabbath to traverse this 

 swamp, and succeeded in killing one of these same birds, and that 

 their sounds have not been heard in town since, until the former in- 

 stance occurred which secured a specimen to me."J 



* MS. notes of W. W. Coe, Esq. 



f Allen, Rarer Birds of Massachusetts, p. 39, 1869. 



\ Am. Jour. Sci. and Arts, vol. xliv, No. 2, p. 265, 1843. 



