86 BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT HERON, QUA-BIRD. 



true Herons; it walks in a stooping posture, the neck much retracted, until it 

 sees its prey, when, with a sudden movement, it stretches it out and secures 

 its food. It is never seen standing motionless, waiting for its prey, like the 

 true Herons, but is constantly moving about in search of it. Its feeding 

 places are the sides of ditches, meadows, the shady banks of creeks, bayous, 

 and ponds or rivers, as well as the extensive salt-marshes and mud-bars left 

 exposed at low water; and I have observed it to alight in the ponds in the 

 suburbs of Charleston towards evening, and feed there. In all such situa- 

 tions, excepting the last, this bird may often be seen by day, but more 

 especially in the evening or morning twilight, wading up to its ankles, or, as 

 we commonly say, its knee-joints. Its food consists of fishes, shrimps, 

 tadpoles, frogs, water-lizards, and leeches, small Crustacea of all kinds, water 

 insects, moths, and even mice, which seem not less welcome to it than its 

 more ordinary articles of food. When satisfied, it retires to some high tree 

 on the banks of a stream or in the interior of a swamp, and there it stands, 

 usually on one leg, for hours at a time, apparently dosing, though seldom 

 sound asleep. 



When wounded, this bird first tries to make its escape by hiding among 

 the grass or bushes, squattingthe moment it finds what it deems a secure 

 place; but if no chance of a safe retreat occurs, it raises its crest, ruffles its 

 feathers, and, opening its bill, prepares to defend itself. It can bite pretty 

 severely, but the injury inflicted by its bill is not to be compared with that 

 produced by its claws, which on such occasions it uses with much effect. If 

 you seize it, it utters a loud, rough, continued sound, and tries to make its 

 escape whenever it perceives the least chance. 



The Night Heron undergoes three annual changes of plumage ere it 

 attains its perfect state, although many individuals breed in the spring of 

 the third year. After the first autumnal moult, the 3 7 oung is as you see it 

 represented in the plate. In the second autumn, the markings of the neck 

 and other parts have almost entirely disappeared; the upper parts of the 

 head have become of a dull blackish-green, mixing near the upper mandible 

 with the dull brown of the first season, while the rest of the plumage has 

 assumed a uniform dull ochreous greyish-brown. In the course of the 

 following season, the bird exhibits the green of the shoulders and back, the 

 head is equally richly coloured, and the frontal band between the upper 

 mandible and the eye, and over the latter, is pure white. At this age it 

 rarely has the slender white feathers of the hind head longer than an inch or 

 two. The sides of the neck, and all the lower parts, have become of a purer 

 greyish-white. The wings are now spotless in all their parts, and of a 

 light brownish-grey, as is the tail. The following spring, the plumage is 

 complete, and the bird is as represented in the plate. After this period, 



