Synonym 
of Young 
after first 
moult, and 
before they 
acquire 
maturity. 
Occasional 
visitant. 
Habits. 
40 GRALLATORES. NYCTICORAX. Nient-Heron. 
Ardea grisea, Linn. 1. 239. 22.—Gmel. Syst. 1. 625. 
Ardea Nycticorax foem. Lath. Ind. 2. 678. 13. 
Bihoreau la femelle, Buff: Ois. 7. 435. 
Ardea obscura, Lath. Ind. 2. 679. 16. 
Ardea Badia, Gmel. Syst. 1. 644.—Lath. Ind. 2. 686. 37. 
Le Crabier Roux, Buff: Ois 7. 390. 
Chesnut Heron, Lath. Syn. 5. 73. 37. 
Ardea Cracra, Lath. Ind. 2. 699. 77. 
Cracra Heron, Lath. Syn. 5. 96. 68. 
Night-Heron, or Qua-Bird, Wiis. Amer. Orn. 7. 106. pl. 61. fig. 2. and 3. 
Night-Heron, or Night-Raven, Penn, Arct. Zool. 2. 356.—Will. (Angl.) 
279. 3. pl. 49.—Lath. Syn. 5. 52. Do. Sup. 234.—Bewick’s Br. Birds, 
2. 145.—Mont. Ornith. Dict. and Sup.—Shaw’s Zool. 11. 609. pl. 47.— 
Flem. Br. Anim. 1. 96. sp. 4. 
Provincrat,——Lesser Ash-coloured Heron. 
Tue geographical distribution of this singular bird is very 
widely extended, as its appearance has been recognised in 
certain. localities, in all the four quarters of the globe. In 
the southern and eastern parts of Europe it is abundant, 
especially in Hungary ; but it becomes of rarer occurrence 
as it approaches the north, and, in our own Islands, it is 
only known as an occasional visitant—The first instance 
upon record of its being shot here, was one near London, in 
1782. In 1798, a notice of the Gardenian Heron (or young 
of this species), shot by Lord Kirkwall, at Thame, in Ox- 
fordshire, was communicated. to the Linnean Society ; and 
since that period several specimens of the adult bird have 
been killed ; two of which came under my own observation, 
viz. a beautiful male, shot by the Earl of Home, at the Hir- 
sel, near Coldstream, in the spring of 1823; and another, 
now in the Museum of Sir W. Jarpine, Bart., which was 
killed about two years afterwards in the neighbourhood of 
Dumfries. Like the Bitterns, these birds feed, and are in 
activity during the night.—In the day they resort to woods, 
or to tall trees on the banks of rivers, or in the immediate 
neighbourhood of the swamps where they procure their food, 
and on which they quietly roost till the decline of the sun, 
and the approach of twilight again calls them forth to satisfy 
the cravings of appetite. In their flight to the feeding 
ground they frequently utter a hoarse and hollow note, ha- 
