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YELLOW-CROWNED HERON. 
ARDEA VIOLACEA, LINN. 
PLATE CCCXXXVI. Aputt anp Youne. 
Tuer Yellow-crowned Heron, which is one of the handsomest spe- 
cies of its tribe, is called “ Cap-cap” by the Creoles of Lower Louisi- 
ana, in which country it is watched and shot with great eagerness, on 
account of the excellence of its flesh. It arrives about New Orleans 
toward the end of March, and departs in the middle of October. On 
arriving, they throw themselves among the thickets along the bayous, 
where they breed. Like the Night Heron, this species may be enticed 
near by imitating its cries, when it approaches, cutting many curious 
zigzags in the air, and alights close by. It is a curious circumstance 
that when passing over several gunners placed on the watch for them, 
they dive toward the ground if shot at and missed, and this they do 
several times in succession, according to the number of shots. It is in 
the evening and at dawn that they are chiefly obtained. ‘They are 
said not to travel in boisterous weather, or when there is thunder ; and 
I have heard the same stated with regard to the Night Heron. 
In some parts of the Southern States, this species is quite abun- 
dant, while in the intermediate tracts it is seldom or never met with. 
Thus, in the Floridas, I found great numbers on a bayou near Halifax 
River, but afterwards saw none until I reached one of the keys, more 
than two hundred miles distant, and farther south, where it was breed- 
ing in society. The first of these flocks I saw in winter, the other on 
the 22d of May. Again, while proceeding toward the Texas, we saw 
a few on an island in Bay Blanche, but met with none afterwards until 
we reached Galveston Island, where they were plentiful. They sel- 
_dom advance eastward far beyond North Carolina, and I am not aware 
of any having been seen farther than New Jersey. On the other hand, 
they are not generally found on the Mississippi beyond Natchez, al- 
though stragglers may sometimes be seen farther up. 
This species is by no means entirely nocturnal, for I have seen it 
searching tor food among the roots of mangroves at all hours of the 
day, and that as assiduously as any diurnal bird, following the margins 
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