NIGHT HERON. 



SUBGENUS II. BOTAURUS. 



206. ASDEA JfYCTICORAX, LINNJEUS AND WILSON. 

 NIGHT HERON, OR QUA BIRD. 



WILSON, PLATE LXI. FIG. II. ADULT. FIG. III. YOUNG. 



EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. 



THIS species, though common to both continents, 

 and known in Europe for many centuries, has heen so 

 erroneously described by all the European naturalists 

 whose works I have examined, as to require more 

 than common notice in this place. For this purpose, 

 an accurate detail is given of so much of their history 

 as I am personally acquainted with. 



The night heron arrives in Pennsylvania early in 

 April, and immediately takes possession of his former 

 breeding place, which is usually the most solitary and 

 deeply shaded part of a cedar swamp. Groves of 

 swamp oak, in retired and inundated places, are also 

 sometimes chosen, and the males not unfrequently 

 select tall woods, on the banks of the river, to roost 

 in during the day. These last regularly direct their 

 course, about the beginning of evening twilight, towards 

 the marshes, uttering, in a hoarse and hollow tone, the 

 sound Qua, which by some has been compared to that 

 produced by the retchings of a person attempting to 

 vomit. At this hour, also, all the nurseries in the 

 swamps are emptied of their inhabitants, who disperse 

 about the marshes, and along the ditches and river 

 shore, in quest of food. Some of these breeding places 

 have been occupied every spring and summer for time 

 immemorial, by from eighty to one hundred pair of 

 qua birds. In places where the cedars have been cut 

 down for sale, the birds have merely removed to another 

 quarter of the swamp ; but when personally attacked, 

 long teased, and plundered, they have been known to 

 remove from an ancient breeding place, in a body, no 

 one kne\v where. Such was the case with one on the 



