97 



NIGHT HERON. 



NIGHT HAVEN. SPOTTED HERON. 



GARDENIAN HERON. LESSER ASH-COLOTJRED HERON. 

 JAMAICA NIGHT HERON. 



Ni/cticorax europceus, STEPHENS. 



Ardea nycticorax, LINNJEUS. 



" gardeni, GMELIX. 



" jamaciensis, GMELIN. 



" (/risea, LlNX2EUS. 



" badia, GMELIN. 



" cracra, LATHAM. 



" obscura, LATHAM. 



Nycticorax. Nyx Night. Corax A Raven. Europceus European. 



THIS curious bird is described by most authors as a native 

 of each of the four quarters of the globe. In Europe, it is 

 said to be especially abundant in Hungary, and occurs also 

 in Denmark and Norway, on the shores of the Baltic, and 

 in France, Spain, Portugal, and Italy. In Asia in Persia, 

 and the neighbourhood of the Caucasus, India, China, and 

 Japan. In Africa at the Cape of Good Hope; and in North 

 America, in which latter region it is the most abundant, that 

 is, if it be indeed the same species, but the Prince of Canino 

 doubts their identity, and Wilson says that the American 

 bird is larger than the European one. This, however, I 

 believe, is the case with other species that are certainly the 

 same. 



In England, one was shot near London, in 1722, and 

 preserved in the Leverian Museum, the collection of Sir 

 Ashton Lever. One near Thame, in Oxfordshire, by Lord 

 Kirkwall, in 1798; one was shot in Norfolk, in May, 1824, 

 out of the North Grates, Yarmouth; it was perched on a 

 VOL. v. H 



