ARDEA NYCTICORAX. (Linn.) 

 Night Heron. 



The Niglit Heron although rarely to be met with in this 

 country, is not unfrequent on some parts of the Continent; 

 and is abundant in America as will be seen by the interesting 

 account which I have copied from the third volume of 

 Audubon's Ornithological Biography. 



" This species breeds in communities ai'ound the stagnant 

 ponds either near plantations, or in the interior of retired 

 and secluded swamps, as well as on some of the sea islands 

 covered wdth evergreen trees. Their Heronries are formed 

 either in low bushes or in middle sized or tall trees, as seems 

 most convenient or secm'e. In the Floridas they are partial 

 to the mangroves that overhang the salt water ; in Louisiana, 

 they prefer the cypresses, and in the middle States they find 

 the cedars most suitable. In some breeding places, within a 

 few miles of Charleston, which I visited, the nests were placed 

 on low bushes or crow^ded together, some within a yard of the 

 ground, others raised seven or eight feet above it ; many 

 being placed flat on the branches, Avhilst others were in the 

 forks. Hundreds of these might be seen at once, as they 

 were built on the side of the bushes fronting the water. 

 Those which I found in the Floridas, were all placed on the 

 south-west side of mangrove islands, but were further apart 

 from each other, some being only about a foot above high- 

 water mark, w^hile others w^ere in the very tops of the trees, 

 which however scarcely exceeded twenty feet in height. In 

 some inland swamps in Louisiana, I saw them placed on the 

 tops of tall cypress trees about one hundred feet high, and 

 along with Ardea Herodias and Ardca alba." 



