YELLOW-CROWNED HERON. 291 
of rivers, and seizing on both aquatic and terrestrial animals. Whilst 
at Galveston, I frequently saw a large flock similarly occupied. When 
they had satisfied their hunger, they would quietly remove to some 
safe distance toward the middle of an island, where, standing in a 
crouching posture on the ground, they presented a very singular appear- 
ance. ‘hat they are able to see to a considerable distance on fine 
clear nights, I have no doubt, as I am confident that their migratory 
movements are usually performed at such times, having seen them, as 
well as several other species, come down from a considerable height in 
the air, after sun-rise, for the purpose of resting and procuring food. 
The flight of the Yellow-crowned Heron is rather slow, and less 
protracted than that of the Night Heron, which it however somewhat 
resembles. When in numbers, and surprised on their perches, they 
usually rise almost perpendicularly for thirty or forty yards, and then 
take a particular direction, leading them to some well-known place. 
Whenever I have started them from the nest, especially on the Flori- 
da Keys, they would sneak off on wing quite low, under cover of the 
mangroves, and fly in this manner until they had performed the circuit 
of the island, when they would alight close to me, as if to see whether 
I had taken their eggs or young. 
When on the ground, they exhibit little of the elegance displayed 
by the Louisiana, the Reddish, the Blue, or the White Herons; they 
advance with a less sedate pace, and seldom extend their neck much 
even when about to seize their food, which they appear to do with lit- 
tle concern, picking it up from the ground in the manner of a domestic 
fowl. Nor are they at all delicate in the choice of their viands, but 
swallow snails, fish, small snakes, crabs, crays, lizards, and leeches, as 
well as small quadrupeds, and young birds that have fallen from their 
nests. One which was killed by my friend Epwarp Harris, Esq., on 
the 19th of April 1837, on an island in the Bay of Terre Blanche, about 
4 o’clock in the evening, was, when opened next morning, found to have 
swallowed a terrapin, measuring about an inch and a half in length, by 
one in breadth. It was still alive, and greatly surprised my compa- 
nions as well as myself by crawling about when liberated. 
This species places its nest either high or low, according to the na- 
ture of the place selected for it, and the abundance of food in the neigh- 
bourhood. In the interior of swampy woods, in Lower Louisiana, I 
have found the nests placed on the tops of the loftiest cypresses, and 
