271 



and there is in many parts a tendency to assume the colours of the adult ; the underparts are also paler, 

 and considerably less striped than the young example. Mr. Swinhoe gives an excellent description of 

 the young bird in nestling-plumage (Ibis, 1861, p. 54), which I transcribe as follows : — 



" In the smaller chick procured the eye was just opened, and of no determined colour. The bill and lore 

 were of a yellowish flesh-colour, very pale, and tinged with blue. The legs of a similar colour, with 

 pale claws. The head and back were covered with a long blackish down, and the rest of the body with 

 more or less whitish down, somewhat resembling sheep's wool. The black down on the head was drawn 

 out into long white tufts, which stood out from the head like a crown of thick threads. 



"In the larger chick the eye was of a pale sea-green; the lore and bill were tinged with yellowish green. 

 The long down of the head had opened out into filamentous ends. The legs were bluish sea-green 

 above, and sienna-yellow beneath. The bare skin of the round projecting belly was sea-green, as also 

 the dorsal skin. The colour of the down was light purplish grey, tipped with white on the crown, and 

 giving place to white on the flanks and belly." 



As a rule, the adult bird has three long occipital white plumes ; but some specimens have four, six, and even 

 occasionally as many as eight or ten of these plumes. My artist, Mr. Keulemans, has a sketch of 

 one he had for examination, which had ten plumes, which he has utilized in drawing the Plate of 

 this species. 



After a careful examination of specimens from various parts of the world, I cannot find any valid reason for 

 separating them specifically. In fact the only difference is in size, the American bird being the largest; 

 and those from China the smallest. Three fully adult males measure as follows : viz. one from New 

 Brunswick measures — gape 4'05, wing 12 - 5, tail 4 - 7, tarsus 3"25 ; one from Europe — gape 3 - 7, wing 1T4, 

 tail 4*7, tarsus 3"05 ; and one from China — gape 3"55, wing 10 - 35, tail 4 - 0, tarsus 3'0. 



The fully adult plumage is only gradually assumed ; and, so far as I can judge, the bird does not attain its 

 full beauty of dress until it is three or four years old. 



The present species is chiefly to be met with in the southern and eastern portions of our 

 continent, and but seldom occurs in Northern Europe. In Africa it is found as far south as the 

 Cape of Good Hope ; in Asia east to Japan, and south into the Malay archipelago ; and in 

 America from the Northern United States down to Central America. 



To us in Great Britain the Night-Heron is only known as a rare straggler ; but it has been 

 observed so often that it may almost be looked on as an annual visitor. I doubt, however, the 

 statement made by Mr. Harting that there is reason to believe that it used formerly to nest 

 regularly in England. Yarrell remarks (Brit. B. ii. p. 583) that it has been killed in Sussex, Dor- 

 setshire, Devonshire, Cornwall, Lancashire, Flintshire, Anglesea, Bucks, Bedfordshire, Oxford- 

 shire, Suffolk, Norfolk, Hants, and Yorkshire. Mr. Stevenson says, in his work on the Birds of 

 Norfolk, that " the earliest record of its occurrence in that county is that of the late Sir W. 

 Hooker, to the effect that one was shot by Mr. Stagg, iu Yarmouth, about the year 1800. We 

 have next," he adds, " the evidence of Messrs. Paget, in 1834, that Mr. Youell had known six or 

 seven of them to have been killed in that locality at different times, and in Mr. Hunt's list 

 another at Holkham — the latter, according to Messrs. Sheppard and Whitear, in 1819. Again 

 on the 24th May 1824, from a fruit-tree out of the North Gates at Yarmouth, was shot the 

 memorable specimen which, first recorded by Mr. Youell in the Linnean Society's ' Transactions ' 

 (vol. xiv. p. 588) as the Cayenne Night-Heron (Ardea cayennensis, Linn.), was, as such, included 

 by Selby in his ' Illustrations of British Ornithology.' This bird, however, which is now in 

 Mr. Gurney's collection, and was purchased by him from the late Mr. Thurtell, of Eaton, has 



