NIGHT HERON. 



553 



brown ; rump, and upper tail-coverts, a mixture of ash 

 grey, pale brown, and clove brown ; tail-feathers greyish 

 brown ; chin, throat, neck in front, breast, and under sur- 

 face of the body, dull white, with elongated patches of 

 greyish brown; legs and toes brown, tinged with green, 

 claws dark brown. 



I am indebted to the kindness of the Rev. W. Alderson, 

 of Ashton, near Sheffield, for the use of a clever drawing, 

 from which the vignette below was taken. A Heron was 

 seen one evening going to a piece of water to feed ; the 

 spot was visited the next morning, when it was discovered, 

 that the Heron had struck its sharp beak through the 

 head of an eel, piercing both eyes ; the eel thus held had 

 coiled itself so tightly round the neck of the Heron, as to 

 stop the bird's respiration, and both were dead. 



