126 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMFTONSHIRE 



voracious and active in pursuit of prey as any fish- 

 eater of my acquaintance. 



In captivity I hardly know a more interesting bird 

 than the present, picturesque and beautiful in repose, 

 and most quaint and peculiar in action, easily recon- 

 ciled to confinement, and affording, as it does, most 

 favourable opportunities to the draughtsman and 

 photographer. 



Although I have frequently kept Night Herons for 

 several years in the aviaries at Lilford, I never knew 

 of their laying eggs therein till the summer of 1889, 

 when two of my oldest birds laid some three or four 

 eggs apiece, but neither made any nest. One did 

 not attempt to sit upon her produce, and the other, 

 though she sat assiduously on a hole in the ground 

 in which we had placed some of her eggs, always 

 studiously avoided covering them, and sat on the 

 gravel with her eggs around her. She w^as very 

 jealous of the approach of other birds, but did not 

 appear in any way to resent, or attempt to avoid, 

 human observation. 



The fine occipital plumes of the Night Heron vary 

 in number. I observe that in the article in Yarrell, 

 from which I have above quoted, it is stated that the 

 usual complement is three, and that Mr. Rodd and 

 others have counted as many as ten ; but I should 

 put the usual number at five, and have never found 

 more than seven in any one individual. I am writing 

 of fully-adult birds, and amongst them, even in full 

 nuptial plumage, I have more than once been unable 

 to discover more than two of these most ornamental 

 appendages. 



I notice that the Night Herons in my aviaries 

 dislike the close company of more than one of their 



