The Audubon Magazine. 



Vol. II. 



MAY, 1888. 



No. 4. 



THE NIGHT HERON 



THE herons are a group of birds well 

 represented in America. They are 

 peculiar and but little known to the casual 

 observer, so that before turning our atten- 

 tion to the subject of this sketch a few 

 words may be said about the family as a 

 whole. 



The herons, as is" well known, are char- 

 acterized by long legs, necks and bills, are 

 water-loving birds, living about streams and 

 lakes, from which they draw their subsist- 

 ence. They are birds of rather sluggish 

 habit, slow-moving and with a slow but 

 powerful flight. On account of their quiet 

 ways, and the fact that their life is spent in 

 out-of-the-way places, they are seldom seen 

 except by ornithologists and gunners. Most 

 of the time they spend standing motionless 

 by a stream on the watch for fish, frogs or 

 lizards, and when anything living ventures 

 within their reach it is almost sure to be 

 transfixed by the sharp bill which the ready 

 bird darts out like lightning to seize its 

 prey. 



An interesting account of the habits of 

 some of our South American species of 

 herons is given by Mr. M. H. Hudson, and 

 as the herons quite closely resemble one an- 

 other in their mode of life, what he says 

 about them will apply very well to those 

 which we know. He says: 



"The heron has but one attitude — mo- 

 tionless watchfulness; so that, when not ac- 

 tually on the wing, or taking the few desul- 



tory steps it occasionally ventures on, and 

 in whatever situation it may be placed, the 

 level ground, the summit of a tree, or in 

 confinement, it is seen drawn up, motionless, 

 and apparently apathetic. But when we 

 remember that this is the bird's attitude 

 during many hours of the night and day, 

 when it stands still as a reed in the water; 

 that in such a posture it sees every shy, 

 swift creature that glances by it, and darts 

 its weapon with unerring aim and lightning 

 rapidity, and with such force that I have 

 seen one drive its beak quite through the 

 body of a fish very much too large for the 

 bird to swallow, and cased in bony armor, 

 it is impossible not to think that it is observ- 

 ant and keenly sensible of everything going 

 on around it." 



The bitterns and more sluggish of the 

 herons, when driven from their haunts, 

 fly only short distances of eighty or a hun- 

 dred yards, and again alight among the 

 rushes, "whence" Mr. Hudson, describing 

 further the habits of one South American 

 species, says "it is almost impossible to 

 drive or discover them;" and this he found 

 after careful investigation is due to the 

 fact that the bird, grasping a reed by its 

 feet and pressing against it with its tail, 

 lays its breast bone, neck and beak along 

 it in one straight line, which it maintains so 

 motionless that one may pass and repass it 

 within a few inches without recognizing it; 

 the most remarkable part of the perform- 



