116S NYCTICOBAX GEISEUS. 



the other composedly drawn up, and twisted his head upside down, to get a better view of the stranger ! It 

 was, on the whole, one of the most comical bird-sights I ever beheld. Subsequently, when either of the birds 

 approached it, it shot out its head in like manner, erected its feathers like a porcupine, and gave vent to a 

 loud Heron-like crake, quite different to its usual hoarse croak. It eat nothing for weeks, although I tried it 

 with worms, frogs, &c. ; and as it appeared to be thriving, I was under the impression that it captured worms 

 at night from the floor of the aviary. One morning, however, I found it dead ; and on skinning it, it was 

 almost a skeleton, proving that it had eaten almost nothing for seven weeks ! Its legs had changed from orange 

 to pale yellow. 



The food of this Heron consists of fish, worms, frogs, and large aquatic insects. In India it nearly always 

 roosts on tamarind-trees. 



Nidificution. — The Night-Heron breeds in the early part of the year in Ceylon. In March 1872 a colony 

 were nesting at Uduwila tank, near Tissa Maha Rama ; they chose the thickly-foliaged trees, apart from those 

 (in which the Herons, Ibises, Cormorants, and Pelicans were nesting; and the nests, made of small twigs and 

 sticks, were concealed among the branches. There appear, however, to have been other birds {Herodias garzetta) 

 nesting in the same tree, as some eggs I took, and sent to Mr. Hume, turned out to be too small for the Night- 

 Heron. In India, where it breeds often in its favourite tamarind-tree, but also occasionally in rushes and reeds, 

 the breeding-time is in July and August, and in Cashmere in April and May. The eggs are short ovals, and 

 delicate pale sea-green in colour, ranging in length from E68 to 2'06, and in breadth from 1"3 to 1"45 inch 

 {Hume). 



In China, where it is held sacred in some parts, it nests in public places. Mr. Swinhoe gives an account 

 of a colony at the great Honan Temple, where the nests are placed in banyan-trees within a foot of each other. 

 The parents supplied their young with food throughout the day ; but at night they all became more active, 

 flying off their nests, and settling first on the bare arms of the cotton-trees {Bombax malabaricum) , like 

 gaunt spectres, after which they flew away one after the other, " seldom more than two in the same direction." 

 As darkness set in, he writes, " many returned, and the noise and hubbub from the trees rose to a fearful pitch." 



Genus GOESACHITJS. 



Bill short, stout, curved ; the gonys short and slightly ascending ; naral groove deep. Nostrils 

 wide ; under mandible laterally compressed at the base. Wings pointed, the 3rd quill the longest ; 

 tertials lengthened, exceeding the closed primaries. Tail short. Legs and toes short ; tarsus 

 reticulate. Toes bordered by a narrow membrane ; hind toe proportionately long ; claws short. 



Neck short and densely feathered ; head crested ; plumage soft. 



Of nocturnal habit. 



