550 ARDEIDJl. 



NYCTICORAX. Generic Characters. Beak about the same length as the head, 

 bulky, strong, broad and dilated at the base ; upper mandible slightly bending 

 and curved at the point ; under mandible straight. Nostrils longitudinal, lateral, 

 but little in advance of the base of the beak, naked, placed in a groove, and partly 

 covered by a naked membrane ; lore and orbits naked. Legs of moderate length, 

 naked for a short distance above the tarsal joint ; tarsus longer than the middle 

 toe ; the outer and middle toe united by a membrane ; claws short, that of the 

 middle toe pectinated. 



ACCORDING to Pennant, the first specimen of the Night 

 Heron killed in England was shot near London in May 

 1782, since which more than a dozen examples have been 

 killed and recorded in various counties of England ; it has 

 been obtained twice in Ireland, and twice, if not more, in 

 Scotland. 



The Night Heron has an extensive geographical range, 

 being found in Europe, Africa, and Asia ; it is most nu- 

 merous in the warmer parts of each, and does not go to 

 the very cold or high latitudes on either of the continents 

 of the Northern hemisphere. It inhabits marshes, fens, 

 and the margins of lakes or rivers, which are thickly grown 

 over with reeds or bushes. These birds are nocturnal in 

 their habits, secreting themselves by day among the reeds, 

 flags, rushes, or other rank vegetation of morasses, and take 

 wing on the approach of evening, with harsh disagreeable 

 notes, to visit their feeding-ground. They seek small rep- 

 tiles, fishes, and aquatic insects, which are swallowed 

 whole. They build on trees, and lay four pale greenish 

 blue eggs, rather more than two inches in length by one 

 inch and a half in breadth. The young bird is brown, 

 with elongated yellowish white spots, as shown in the 

 wood-engraving at the head of this subject. From the 

 great difference in colour when compared with the adult 

 Night Heron, the young bird was considered as a different 

 species, and named Ardea Gardeni, and Gardenian Heron, 

 and was called by Dr. Latham the Spotted Heron. Gmelin 



