BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



writer, in referring to examinations which he made, states that the teeth 

 of the pectinated claw were thirty-five or forty in number, and, as they 

 contained particles of the down of the bird, showed evidently from this 

 circumstance that they act the part of a comb to rid the bird of vermin 

 in those parts which it cannot reach with its bill. The late Isaac G. 

 Darlington, of West Chester, some years ago, had large numbers of 

 gold-fishes in a pond near his residence. One day Mr. Darlington 

 caught twenty-five of these fish and placed them in a small pool, intend- 

 ing to remove them the following morning. About bedtime, Mr. D. 

 said, I heard a loud squawking, and on going out saw two Night Herons 

 actively engaged in catching these fish. I shot one of these robbers, 

 which you there see mounted, on the book-case, and on making an in- 

 vestigaton found only one of the fish remaining. "An incident may 

 illustrate the habits of the Night Heron, and perhaps of the whole 

 family. A Night Heron had been noticed for several days sitting on a 

 tree near a branch of White Clay creek. It was at length shot and 

 brought to me, with the tail of a large fish projecting four inches beyond 

 its bill. On removing the fish (a sucker Catostomus, which must have 

 been twelve inches long), its head and shoulders except the bony por- 

 tions were eaten away by the gastric liquor of the stomach." Michener. 

 I have examined the stomachs of twenty odd of these herons, adult and 

 young, which have been shot in June at the breeding-grounds, and found 

 in all only the remains of fishes. In two or three immature birds, taken 

 in August and September, I have discovered a few grasshoppers and 

 portions of insects. 



NOTE. The Yellow-crowned Night Heron (N. violaceus) which is 

 found in eastern North America, "from the Carolinas and the lower 

 Ohio valley south to Brazil," has not, within the last twenty years, to 

 my knowledge been observed in Pennsylvania. Dr. Turnbull, * writing 

 of this species says: "A rare straggler from the south. It has been seen 

 on the borders of the Schuylkill near Philadelphia." 



* Birds of Kast Pennsylvania and New Jersey, published in 1869. 



