BIRDS OF MINNESOTA. 95 
toes nearly equal; head with elongated feathers above and 
behind; these and interscapulars and scapulars lanceolate; neck 
short, bare behind inferiorly; tibia feathered nearly through- 
out; tail of twelve feathers; top of head and body above, glossy 
green; coverts edged with brownish yellow; neck dark purplish 
chestnut; chin and central line of throat white; body beneath 
plumbeous ash. 
Length, 15; wing, 7.50; tarsus, 2; bill, 2.40. 
Habitat, Canada and Oregon, southward to northern South 
America. 
NYCTICORAX NYCTICORAX NEVIUS (Bopp@krT). (202.) 
BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT HERON. 
I find this common species much more frequently in the tax 
idermists’ shops than in its haunts, although I do so occasion- 
ally when on their grounds at twilight, and I find they breed 
regularly very near to if not still within the city limits. Their 
nocturnal habits protect them from observation, but it is 
known that they roost during the day in the tamarack swamps 
and come forth at twilight to seek their food along the borders 
of streams, ditches and on the marshes. The nests are 
constructed about the tenth of May, or a little later, in the 
tamarack swamps, on the trees, and are formed of sticks. 
More than one may occupy the same tree, but the only night- 
heronry I have ever seen had not to exceed a half dozen nests, 
unless I failed to see them, which might have been the case 
with all of my diligence, for they were well concealed in the 
thick branches of the trees which stood in a foot or more of 
water near one of our smaller lakes, or ponds, as the people 
from Maine call them. This breeding place has long been 
broken up. I find through one of my most reliable and inde- 
fatigable correspondents in the southern part of the State that 
this species is quite common there. He met them in nearly all 
of the summer months of their summer residence there. (J. 
McClintock). Mr. Lewis, perfectly familiar with all of their 
habits, reports them common through Becker and Polk coun- 
ties, and believes them nearly universally distributed through- 
out the northern and western divisions of the State. It cannot 
be called a numerous species in any other than a relative 
sense here. At Thief river there is a heronry of the species, 
which, if carefully observed during a season or two, might be 
of much value in making numerical estimates. (Washburn). 
Their food does not differ materially from that of other 
herons I think. 
