THE BIRDS OF NEW JEESEY. 107 



been unfortunate enough to possess desirable plumes or "aigrettes" it 

 would have been exterminated long ago for millinery purposes like 

 most of the foregoing species. Every secluded stream has its pair or 

 two of "Pokes" or "Fly-Up-the-Creeks," and they nest contentedly in 

 some small tree in the low, thick woodland, where they easily escape 

 observation. 



202 Nycticorax nycticorax naevius (Boddaert). 

 Black-crowned Night Heron. 



PLATE 14. 



Adults. Length, 23-26. Wing, 11-12.50. Top of head, back and scapulars, 

 glossy greenish-black; rest of upper parts, gray; forehead, neck and under 

 parts, grayish-white ; several slender white plumes from the back of the head, 

 six to eight inches long. 



Young in first summer. Light brown, streaked with white ; below, streaked 

 with grayish-brown and white ; wings tinged with cinnamon. 



Nest of coarse sticks ; eggs, four to five, pale bluish-green, 2 x 1.40. 



A rather common bird throughout the State, nesting usually in 

 colonies in woodland, especially along the lower Delaware Valley, 

 west of the Pine Barrens, and formerly on the coast islands, particu- 

 larly Seven Mile Beach. They usually arrive during April, and are 

 most common in August and September. Mr. C. J. Hunt 

 finds them occasionally in midwinter at Pensauken, 1 and Mr. L. I. 

 Smith took one on February 15th, 1902, on the Delaware, below 

 Philadelphia, which was still in the brown plumage. They formerly 

 associated with several other species in the heronries on the coast 

 islands, and I have found them near Salem nesting with the Great 

 Blue Herons. 2 



Mr. Thurber states that there were formerly several large heronries 

 of this species near Morristown, and Mr. Hann says a few still nest 

 near Summit, the remnant of a former large heronry. 



Night Heron rookeries differ from those of the Great Blue Herons 

 only in size and in the fact that they are usually in lower trees. The 

 birds are nocturnal feeders, and roost during the daytime. In the 

 evening, after dusk, and in the early hours of the morning, we can 

 often hear them going overhead through the darkness, uttering now 

 and then their hoarse "quak, quak." 



1 Cassinia, 1907, p. 51. 



2 Gf. also, Shick Auk, 1890, p. 327 ; Coggins, Cassinia, 1902, p. 54. 



