82 BIRDS OF ALABAMA 



General habits. — The green heron is more solitary in habit 

 than most of the other herons, and single pairs are often 

 found nesting in a small swamp or a clump of bushes close 

 to a pond. Occasionally, however, a number of pairs may be 

 associated in the nesting season. The birds are most active 

 early in the morning and late in the evening, feeding chiefly 

 along the borders of ponds and streams as well as on marshes 

 and around wet, boggy spots in fields. They are not par- 

 ticularly shy, and on being startled often fly but a short dis- 

 tance before alighting on a tree, stump, or fence whence they 

 view the intruder with outstretched neck and nervous twitch- 

 ings of the tail. 



The nest is a shallow, loosely constructed platform of small 

 sticks, placed usually in the upper branches of a small tree. 



Food habits. — Five stomachs of this bird taken in Alabama 

 have been examined. They contained remains of crawfish, 

 small fishes, spiders, water bugs, and dragonfly nymphs. One 

 bird had consumed 13 crawfishes, another 12, and another 9 ; 

 one stomach contained, besides crawfish, remains of at least 

 43 minnows (FundultLS and Notropis) and 33 young gizzard 

 shad (Dorosoma). 



BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT HERON; GROSBEC: 

 Nycticorax nycticorax naevius (Boddaert). 



State records. — The black-crowned night heron is apparent- 

 ly rather uncommon locally as a summer resident. Dr. Avery 

 omits the bird from his Hale County list, but his note book 

 records one seen at Greensboro, September 6, 1886. Golsan 

 and Holt report it as a breeder in Autauga County, a nest 

 having been found April 23, 1911.J Gutsell observed these 

 herons in considerable numbers on Petit Bois Island, July 28, 

 August 21, and September 1, 1911, and found a few nests sup- 

 posed to belong to them ; an adult female specimen was taken 

 on the island on July 28, and Peters saw two adults and an im- 

 mature bird there, June 3, 1914. 



General habits. — This species, as its name indicates, is 

 chiefly nocturnal in habit. In the dusk of evening the birds 



JGoIsan and Holt, The Auk, vol. 31, p. 217, 1914. 



