BLRDS OF INDIANA. 667 



10, 1888, there were large numbers in the heronry. Many were flying 

 over, carrying sticks and building. 



The heronry "Crane Heaven" mentioned under Great Blue Heron, 

 upon authority of Mr. C. E. Aiken, some twenty miles above Water 

 Valley on the Kankakee, contained, in 1886, great numbers of this 

 species. They were nesting upon the same trees with A. herodias. 

 Mr. J. G. Parker, Jr., informs me that a large colony breeds every year 

 in Sandy Hook Marsh, on the Kankakee Elver, two miles south of 

 Kouts. The young, fully fledged, are taken through June and July. 

 Ordinarily they depart in September and early October. Occasionally, 

 however, a few are found well into November. These late birds gener- 

 ally are young. Prof. B. W. Evermann took a young female in 

 Carroll County November 24, 1884. This is the latest record I have. 

 Mr. A. W. Hamilton took a young bird at Zanesville, Wells County, 

 November 12, 1896. Mr. Kuthven Deane reports two specimens at 

 English Lake November 16, 1892. 



They are usually nocturnal in their habits, but sometimes, espe- 

 cially after the young are hatched, they may be seen hunting food by 

 day, as well as by night. The common name given to it by those who 

 live near its colonies, on account of its note, is "Quawk." 



SUBGKXUS NYCTINASSA STKJNEGER. 



*73. (203). Nycticorax violaceus (LINN ) 



Yellow-crowned Night Heron. 

 Synonym, WHITE-CROWNED NIGHT HERON. 



Adult. Top of head and elongated patch on side of head, white, the 

 first often stained with rusty brown, and in freshly killed or living 

 specimens deeply tinted with delicate primrose-yellow; rest of head, 

 black; plumage in general, bluish-plumbeous, plain beneath, but on 

 upper parts striped with black. Immature. Top of head, black; 

 above, sooty grayish-brown, streaked with dull white or pale buff, the 

 streaks more wedge-shaped on wing coverts; lower parts, soiled 

 whitish, striped with brownish-grajr. 



Length, 22.00-28.00; wing, 10.50-12.65; bill, 2.50-3.00, tarsus, 3.10- 

 4.20. 



RANGE. America, from Brazil north to South Carolina, southern 

 Indiana, lower California, casually to Massachusetts and Colorado. 

 Breeds from southern Indiana southward. 



Nest, of sticks, in trees. Eggs, 4-5; pale, bluish-green; 1.96 by 1.42. 



Common summer resident in some localities in the lower Wabash 

 Valley. Breeds in colonies. 



