NYCTICORAX. 133 
blackish of crown; colors generally more sombre, with median lower 
parts less purely white. Young: Above light brown, tinged with cin- 
namon (especially on quills), each feather (except quills and tail- 
feathers) marked with a median tear-shaped or wedge-shaped stripe of 
white, the quills with small white spots at tips; tail-feathers plain ash- 
gray; sides of head and neck, and entire lower parts, striped with 
grayish brown and white, the chin and throat plain white medially. 
Length about 23.00-26.00, wing 11.00-12.80, culmen 2.80-3.10, tarsus 
3.10-3.40, middle toe (without claw) 2.65-3.10. Eggs 2.01147. Hab. 
Nearly the whole of America, except Arctic regions. 
202. N. nycticorax nzvius (Bopp.). Black-crowned Night Heron. 
a’, Culmen much shorter than tarsus (only a little longer than middle toe) ; gonys 
convex, and lateral outlines of bill straight, or sometimes even perceptibly 
convex ; tarsus much longer than middle toe; scapulars lengthened, narrow 
(but not pointed), somewhat loose-webbed. (Subgenus Wyctanassa Srxsn.) 
Adult: Top of head and elongated patch on side of head, white, the first 
often stained with rusty brown, and in freshly-killed or living specimens 
deeply tinted with delicate primrose-yellow ; rest of head black ; plumage 
in general bluish plumbeous, plain beneath, but on upper parts striped 
with black. Young: Above sooty grayish brown, streaked with dull 
white or pale buff, the streaks more wedge-shaped on wing-coverts; 
lower parts soiled whitish, striped with brownish gray. Length 22.00- 
28.00, wing 10.50-12.65, culmen 2.50-3.00, tarsus 3.10-4.20, middle toe 
2.20-2.55. Higgs 1.96 x 142. Hab. Whole of tropical and subtropical 
America, including West Indies; north regularly to Missouri, Illinois, 
Indiana, and North Carolina, irregularly or casually much farther. 
203. N. violaceus (Linn.). Yellow-crowned Night Heron. 
