311 



BLAGK-CROWNED NIGHT HERON. 

 Nyctioorax nyoticorax naevius. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Bill very stout and thick; maxilla slightly curved; bill and 

 tarsus each about three inches long; head and neck large, the 

 latter quite short; body short and heavy. 



Adult.— l^ength about twenty-five inches; alar extent, about 

 forty-four; bill black, lores greenish-yellow; eyes, red, legs yel- 

 lowish; top of head and middle of back glossy-greenish black 

 (sometimes dull black with little or no greenish); a narrow 

 stripe on forehead reaching to eye; sides of head chin, head, 

 throat and under parts white, often tinged with a faint yel- 

 lowish or a very delicate light purple color; wings and tail 

 ashy-blue; neck, except in front, similar but paler. The adults 

 frequently have three long and white occipital feathers, which 

 whpn rolled together, appear as one thick round feather. 



Young.— BWl (dried skin) black and yellowish; iris light yel- 

 low; legs yellowish, upper part light brown, spotted or 

 streaked with whitish; tail about same as adult; sides of head 

 and neck, and under plumage generally, striped with whitish 

 and dusky. A young bird before me differs from the last 

 chiefly in having top of head and large spece between shoulders 

 dull brownish gray, without spots. 



Habitat,— America., from the British possessions southward 

 to the Falkland Islands, including part of the West Indies. 



Next to the Green Heron the Night Heron is unques- 

 tionably the most abundant of the family in this State. 

 The adult birds are easily distinguished from other 

 Herons by the black feathers on top of head and back, 

 red eyes, and frequently three long white feathers, 

 which grow from the base of the head. The appella- 

 tion, Night Heron, is highly appropriate, as this bird 

 is mainly nocturnal in its habits. During the day-time 

 the Night Heron is inactive, and generally is found 

 perched on a log or the limb of a tree in a quite nook 

 about the swamps and streams. As twilight ap- 

 proaches this drowsy wader becomes, as it were, a new 

 being — impelled, no donbt, by the pangs of hunger — he 



