NIGHT HEROX. 41 



also the Jong slender plumes that flow from the head. 

 These facts I have exhibited by dissection on several 

 subjects, to different literary gentlemen of my acquain- 

 tance, particularly to my venerable friend, Mr William 

 Bartram, to whom I have also often shewn the young. 

 One of these last, which was kept for some time in 

 the botanic garden of that gentleman, by its voice 

 instantly betrayed its origin, to the satisfaction of all 

 who examined it. These young certainly receive their 

 full coloured plumage before the succeeding spring, as, 

 on their first arrival, no birds are to be seen in the 

 dress of the young bird ; but, soon after they have bred, 

 these become more numerous than the others. Early 

 in October they migrate to the south. According to 

 Buffon, these birds also inhabit Cayenne, and are 

 found widely dispersed over Europe, Asia, and America. 

 The European species, however, is certainly much 

 smaller than the American, though in other respects 

 corresponding exactly to it. Among a great number 

 which I examined with attention, the following des- 

 cription was carefully taken from a common sized full 

 grown male. 



Length of the night heron, two feet four inches ; 

 extent, four feet ; bill, black, four inches and a quarter 

 long from the corners of the mouth to the tip ; lores, 

 or space between the eye and bill, a bare bluish white 

 skin; eyelids also large and bare, of a deep purple 

 blue ; eye three-quarters of an inch in diameter ; the 

 iris of a brilliant blood red ; pupil, black ; crested crown 

 and hindhead, deep dark blue, glossed with green ; 

 front and line over the eye, white ; from the hindhead 

 proceed three very narrow, white, tapering feathers, 

 between eight and nine inches in length ; the vanes of 

 these are concave below, the upper one enclosing the 

 next, and that again the lower ; though separated by 

 the hand, if the plumage be again shook several times, 

 these long flowing plumes gradually enclose each other, 

 appearing as one; these the bird has the habit of 

 erecting when angry or alarmed : the cheeks, neck, and 

 whole lower parts, are white, tinctured with yellowish 



