DESCRIPTIVE LIST 



105 



Genus Nycticorax (T. Forst.) 

 85. Nycticorax nycticorax nsevius (Bodd.). BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT HERON. 



Description: Ads. Forehead, lores, neck and underparts white or whitish; crown, upper 

 back and scapulars glossy, greenish black; lower back, wings and tail ashy gray; legs and feet 

 yellow; lores greenish; two or three white rounded occipital plumes about 8.00 in length. Im. 

 Upperparts grayish brown, the feathers streaked or with wedge-shaped spots of white or buffy; 

 outer web of primaries pale rufous; underparts white, streaked with blackish. L., 24.00; W., 

 12.00; Tar., 3.20; B., 3.00. (Chap., Birds of E. N. A.) 



Range. Breeds from Canada to Patagonia; winters from Gulf States southward. 



Range in North Carolina. Coastal region only in summer. 



FIG. 69. BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT HERON. 



At the time of the publication of Smithwick's list of North Carolina birds, in 

 1897, this bird was known in the State only by a few specimens taken in Carteret 

 and Buncombe counties. We now know it to be a regular summer bird in the coast 

 country, nesting commonly in rookeries with other herons. A few pairs each sum- 

 mer associate with the Cormorants on Great Lake and make their nests in the 

 cypress trees used by their fierce black neighbors. On April 30, 1898, Pearson 

 found a nest with two freshly laid eggs and one with four slightly incubated eggs in 

 the heron colony on Lake Head Island, Mattamuskeet Lake. Apparently this was 

 the first record of the birds breeding in the State. Night Herons' nests are com- 

 monly more bulky structures than those usually constructed by other members of 



