NIGHT HERON 



105 



nebulosa), and the White Ibis (Tantakis albus), for which nice 

 dainties I observed they generally found purchasers. 



The food of the Night Heron, or Qua-bird, is chiefly com- 

 posed of small fish, which it takes by night. Those that I opened 

 had a large expansion of the gullet immediately under the bill, that 

 narrowed from thence to the stomach, which is a large oblong 

 pouch, and was filled with fish. The teeth of the pectinated claw 

 were thirty-five or forty in number, and as they contained particles 

 of the down of the bird, shewed evidently from this circumstance 

 that they act the part of a comb, to rid the bird of vermin in those 

 parts which it cannot reach with its bill. 



VOL. vii. 



