Synonym 

 of Young 

 after first 

 moult, and < 

 before they 

 acquire 

 maturity. 



40 GRALLATORES. NYCTICORAX. NIGHT-HERON. 



( Ardea grisea, Linn. 1. 239. 22 Gmel. Syst. 1. 625. 



Ardea Nycticorax foem. Lath. Ind. 2. 678. 13. 



Bihoreau k femelle, Buff. Ois. 7. 435. 



Ardea obscura, Lath. Ind. 2. 679. 16. 



Ardea Badia, Gmel. Syst. 1. 644. Lath. Ind. 2. 686. 37. 



Le Crabier Roux, Buff. Ois 7. 390. 



Chesnut Heron, Lath. Syn. 5. 73. 37. 



Ardea Cracra, Lath. Ind. 2. 699. 77- 



Cracra Heron, a^. Syn. 5. 96. 68. 



Night-Heron, or Qua-Bird, Wils. Amer. Orn. 7. 106. pi. 61. fig. 2. and 3. 



Night-Heron, or Night-Raven, Penn* Arct. Zool. 2. 356 Will. (Angl.) 

 279. 3. pL 49 Lath. Syn. 5. 52. Do. Sup. 234. BewicVs Br. Birds, 

 2. 145 Mont. Ornith. Diet, and Sup Shaw's ZooL 11. 609. pi. 47. 

 Ffero. Br. Anim. 1. 96. sp. 4. 



PEQVINCIAL, Lesser Ash-coloured Heron. 



THE geographical distribution of this singular bird is very 

 widely extended, as its appearance has been recognised in 

 certain localities, in all the four quarters of the globe. In 

 the southern and eastern parts of Europe it is abundant, 

 especially in Hungary ; but it becomes of rarer occurrence 

 as it approaches the north, and, in our own Islands, it is 



Occasional only known as an occasional visitant. The first instance 

 sitant. U p 0n record of its being shot here, was one near London, in 

 1782. In 1798, a notice of the Gardenian Heron (or young 

 of this species), shot by Lord Kirk wall, at Thame, in Ox- 

 fordshire, was communicated to the Linnean Society ; and 

 since that period several specimens of the adult bird have 

 been killed ; two of which came under my own observation, 

 viz. a beautiful male, shot by the Earl of Home, at the Hir- 

 sel, near Coldstream, in the spring of 1823; and another, 

 now in the Museum of Sir W. JABDINE, Bart., which was 

 killed about two years afterwards in the neighbourhood of 

 Dumfries. Like the Bitterns, these birds feed, and are in 



Habits. activity during the night. In the day they resort to woods, 

 or to tall trees on the banks of rivers, or in the immediate 

 neighbourhood of the swamps where they procure their food, 

 and on which they quietly roost till the decline of the sun, 

 and the approach of twilight again calls them forth to satisfy 

 the cravings of appetite. In their flight to the feeding 

 ground they frequently utter a hoarse and hollow note, ha- 



