602 NIGHT HERON. 



nature told him the period of migration had arrived. In obedience to 

 these feelings, he repeatedly strolled off (his wing having been cut he 

 could not fly) ; but what was most unaccountable, all these attempts 

 were uniformly in the northern direction, shewing, as it would seem, 

 that experience is necessary, as well as instinct, to enable them to know 

 their proper route. In one or two of these attempts at migration, which 

 were always made in the night, he very much alarmed some of the 

 neighbourhood by his incessant cries, which were mistaken for those of 

 persons supposed to have fallen into the adjacent brook. The stream 

 was several times examined, to no purpose, and no little curiosity, and 

 even alarm, was felt, to know the source of these midnight outcries. 

 The mystery was, however, solved, when one of the neighbours hap- 

 pened by accident to hear the genuine note, which had excited so much 

 anxiety, as our servant was one day bringing home the vagrant after 

 one of these rambling excursions. He continued for some time to ex- 

 cite the interest of visitors and the family, by his gaunt figure and un- 

 musical note, which yet was interesting from its singularity. At length, 

 the memorable 16th of December, the coldest day ever known in New 

 England, put an end to his career, to the sorrow of many, although to 

 the gratification of others, who never forgave him the hoax he had played 

 off upon them." 



Female. The interior of the mouth as in the preceding species, but 

 the upper mandible more concave ; the width of the mouth 1 inch 1 

 twelfth ; the lower mandible dilatable to 1 inch 7 twelfths. Tongue 

 2 inches 1 twelfth long, trigonal, tapering, in all respects as in the other 

 species. CEsophagus, ahc, 12 inches long ; at the commencement 2 in- 

 ches in width, at the distance of 2\ inches it contracts to 1^ inch, and 

 then continues of the width of 1 inch ; on entering the thorax it enlar- 

 ges to 1 inch 8 twelfths, and in the pro ventricular part, h c, contracts to 1 

 inch 2 twelfths, which is also about the breadth of the stomach. The pro- 

 ventricular glands form a belt 10 twelfths in breadth. The walls. of the 

 stomach, d, are thin ; its inner surface soft and nearly smooth, being 

 faintly rugous, in the same tortuous manner as in the last species. The 

 pyloric lobe, e, has a diameter of ^ inch, its inner surface smooth. The 

 lobes of the liver unequal, the right 1 inch 9 twelfths, the left 1 inch 5 

 twelfths in length ; the gall-bladder of an ovate form, 1 inch long, | inch in 



