THE NIGHT HERON. 173 



to us, were met with about the migratory period, when the species 

 leaves the more northern for the southern parts of North 

 America. The fourth, which was obtained in December, may 

 have arrived at that period, and have remained in the country 

 unobserved until it was killed." 



THE NIGHT HERON, 



Nycticorax Gardenii, Gmel. (sp.) 



Europaus, Steph. 



Ardea nycticorax, Linn. 



Is of very rare occurrence. 



One which I saw in the shop of Mr. Glennon, bird-preserver, 

 Dublin, in March 1834, and noticed in the Proceedings of the 

 Zoological Society for that year (p. 30), was stated by him to 

 have been sent in fresh condition from Letterkenny, in the county 

 of Donegal. It was at the same time mentioned that two or 

 three other examples, killed in Ireland, had been sent to him. 

 Subsequently he informed me of the occurrence of another indi- 

 vidual.* Between the year last-named and 1838 (Ann. Nat. 

 Hist. vol. i. 157), Mr. John Nicholson of Tollbridge (county of 

 Armagh) kindly presented a specimen shot in that neighbourhood, 

 to the Belfast Museum, and favoured me with the follow- 

 ing particulars respecting it : — " I saw this heron first, as it 

 flew off from the branch of a Scotch fir tree, on which it had 

 been resting for some time, near the side of a river. It flew 

 about four hundred yards, and alighted on the bank of a large 

 drain which fenced a plantation of osiers. I brought out a tele- 

 scope, and watched it nearly half an hour to try to discover its 

 habits. I noticed that, while at rest, walking about, or on wing, 

 it invariably kept its head so low upon its body as to completely 

 conceal its great length of neck ; indeed it appeared to have no 

 neck at all. Whilst searching for food, it stretched out its neck 

 at full length. I shot at and missed it. Next day a young man 



* One of these, as Mr. T. W. Warren afterwards learned, was shot near Westport 

 (Mayo) by Mr. Gildea ; another, said to have been killed in Queen's-county, was pur- 

 chased by Mr. It. Ball, and is now in the University Museum, Dublin. 



