I 



NYCTICOEAX. — NYCTANASSA. 171 



Kxtralimitcd Range. Trinidad, Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombi;i, 

 Lesser Antilles, Central and North America, Europe, Asia, and 

 Africa. 



Habits. Schomburgk writes (Reis. Guian. iii. p. 755) this 

 beautiful Heron has exactly the same habits as those o£ N. violaceiis. 

 It is not very common in British Guiana and I rarely met with it. 



Genus NYCTANASSA Stejn. 



Nyctanassa Stejneger, Proc. U.S. Xat. Mus. x. p. 295, note, 1887. 

 Tji^e N. viol ace a (Linn.). 



This genus is distinguished chiefly by having the tarsus longer 

 than the middle toe and claw, a long nuchal crest, and the dorsal 

 plumes much developed, reaching to the tip of the tail, the feathers 

 being disintegrated on their margins. 



107. Nyctanassa violacea. 

 Yellow-CEO wxED Night Heron. 



Nycticorax violaceiis (Linn.), Syst. Nat. i. p. 143, 1758 (Carolina) ; 



Cab. in Scliomb. Eeis. Gruian. iii. p. 754, 1848 ; Brabourne & Chubb, 



B. S. Amer. i. p. 50, no. 472, 1912. 

 Nyctlieroclius violaceiis Salvin, Ibis, 1886, p. 170 ; Quelch, Timehri (2) 



V. p. 107, 1891 (Georgetown). 

 Nyctanassa violacea Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxvi. pp. 130, 274 



1898 (Savana) ; Beebe, Our Search for a Wilderness, p. 154, 1910 



(Waini). 



"Blue Quaak^' {QuelcJi). 



Adult nude. General colour lead-grey broadly streaked with 

 black on the back and wings; fore-neck, breast, and remainder 

 of under surface uniform grey ; head, throat, and hind-neck black 

 with a patch of white beiiind the eye, forehead and middle of 

 crown white with elongated black and white ornamental featheis 

 on the nape. 



Total length 510 mm., culmen 70, wing 244, tail 85, tarsus 72, 

 middle toe and claw GO. 



The male described was collected on the Great Savannas. 



Adult female. Similar in colour to the adult male, but slightly 

 larger than the bird described. 



'Jotal length 556 mm,, culmen 77, wing 262, tail 07, tarsus 80, 

 middle toe and claw 64. 



A young bird from the Abary River differs from the adult in 



