60 HERODIONES: Herons, Storks, Ibises, etc. 



BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT HERON 



(202. Nycticorax nycticorax naevius) 24 in. 



Adults: Back and crown green-black; wings ashy; otherwise 

 dull white. Three slender, round, white plumes, often " nested" 

 and appearing as one, grow from back of head. 



Immatures, first year: Gray-brown above, each feather 

 spotted or splashed with white; neck and under parts streaked 

 white and brownish; throat white. Second year: Head like adult; 

 back brownish gray, wings lighter. 



Call: An explosive "quawk." 



More than any other species of Heron, perhaps, is the Black- 

 crowned Night Heron gregarious in nesting-season, and a visit 

 to a large rookery is an event never to be forgotten. Such an 

 experience fell to the lot of the writer, in 1887, in northern 

 Illinois. 



The Herons had nested for years in an oak grove of perhaps 

 seven or eight acres. Practically every tree held at least one 

 nest; some a dozen or more. Branches and leaves were whitened 

 with excrement, and the ground underneath white-crusted, 

 half burying hundreds of dead birds that represented Nature's 

 toll and that of heartless gunners who killed for "fun" of 

 killing; also many fishes, dropped from nests and in all stages of 

 putrefaction. Disturbed, the Herons left their nests and in a 

 great flock, estimated at a thousand or more, settled in a near-by 

 pasture, to return as the human invaders retired. 



Along with the Night Herons, drawn perhaps by family ties, 

 though apparently not nesting, were numerous Great Blue 

 Herons; while the presence of many Hawks could be accounted 

 for by a probable predilection for the toothsome and easily 

 secured young Heron. 



WYMAN 



