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BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT HERON, QUA-BIRD. 



tAkdea Nycticorax, Linn. 

 PLATE CCCLXIIL— Adult Male and Young. 



The Night Heron is a constant resident in the Southern States, where it 

 is found in abundance in the low swampy tracts near the coast, from the 

 mouth of the Sabine river to the eastern boundaries of South Carolina. On 

 the whole of that vast extent of country, it may be procured at all seasons. 

 The adult birds keep farther south than the young, flocks of the latter 

 remaining in South Carolina during the whole winter, and there the Night 

 Herons are at that period more common than most other species of the 

 family. In that State it is named "the Indian Pullet," in Lower Louisiana 

 the Creoles call it "Gros-bec," the inhabitants of East Florida know it under 

 the name of "Indian Hen," and in our Eastern States its usual appellation is 

 "Qua-bird." 



In the course of my winter rambles through East Florida, I met with 

 several of the large places of resort of Night Herons, and, in particular, one 

 remarkable for the vast number of birds congregated there. It is about six 

 miles below the plantation of my friend John Bulow, Esq., on a bayou 

 which opens into the Halifax river. There several hundred pairs appeared 

 to be already mated, although it was only the month of January; many of 

 the nests of former years were still standing, and all appeared to live in 

 peace and contentment. My friend John Bachman is acquainted with a 

 place on Ashley river, about four miles distant from Charleston, where, 

 among the branches of a cluster of live-oak trees, he has for the last fifteen 

 years found a flock of about fifty of these birds during the winter. They 

 were all young, not a single individual having been observed in the adult 

 plumage, which is the more remarkable, because it is usual for young birds 

 to retreat farther south during winter than the old. It is very common at 

 this period for the sportsmen near Charleston to take their stand along the 

 margins of the salt-water ponds, to which the Herons generally resort about 

 dusk; and they frequently obtain several shots in an evening, but not a 

 single old bird is known to have been killed at this season. 



The Night Heron seldom advances very far into the country, but remains 

 on the low swampy lands along the coast. It is rare to see one farther up 



