YELLOW-CROWNED HERON. 



27 



into Virginia, and even farther north; one of them having been 

 shot a few years ago on the borders of Sehuylkill below Phila- 

 delphia. 



The food of this species consists of small fish, crabs and li- 

 zards, particularly the former; it also appears to have a strong 

 attachment to the neighbourhood of the ocean. 



The Yellow-crowned Heron is twenty-two inches in length, 

 from the point of the bill to the end of the tail; the long flowing 

 plumes of the back extend four inches farther; breadth from tip 

 to tip of the expanded wings thirty-four inches ; bill black, stout, 

 and about four inches in length, the upper mandible grooved ex- 

 actly like that of the common Night Heron; lores pale green; 

 irides fiery red ; head and part of the neck black, marked on each 

 cheek with an oblong spot of white; crested crown and upper part 

 of the head white^ ending in two long narrow tapering plumes of 

 pure white, more than seven inches long; under these are a few 

 others of a blackish color ; rest of the neck and whole lower parts 

 fine ash, somewhat whitish on that part of the neck where it joins 

 the black; upper parts a dark ash, each feather streaked broadly 

 down the center with black, and bordered with white; wing quills 

 deep slate, edged finely with white ; tail even at the end, and of 

 the same ash color; wing coverts deep slate, broadly edged with 

 pale cream; from each shoulder proceed a number of long loosely 

 webbed tapering feathers, of an ash color, streaked broadly down 

 the middle with black, and extending four inches or more beyond 

 the tips of the wings; legs and feet yellow; middle claw pecti- 

 nated. Male and female, as in the common Night Heron, alike 

 in plumage. 



I strongly suspect that the species called by naturalists the 

 Cayenne JVight Heron (Ardea Cayanensis), is nothing more than 

 the present, with which, according to their descriptions, it seems 

 to agree almost exactly. 



