THE NIGHT HERON. 
[173 
to US, were met with about the migratory period, when the species 
leaves the more northern for the southern parts of North 
America. The fourth, which was obtained in December, may 
have arrived at that period, and have remained in the country 
unobserved until it was killed.'’^ 
THE NIGHT HEEON, 
Nycticorax Gardenii, Gmel. (sp.) 
EufopcBus, Steph. 
Ardea nycticorax, Linn. 
Is of very rare occurrence. 
One which I saw in the shop of Mr. Glennon, bird-preserver, 
Dublin, in March 1831, and noticed in the Proceedings of the 
Zoological Society for that year (p. 30), was stated by him to 
have been sent in fresh condition from Letterkenny, in the county 
of Donegal. It was at the same time mentioned that two or 
three other examples, killed in Ireland, had been sent to him. 
Subsequently he informed me of the occurrence of anotlier indi- 
vidual.* Between the year last-named and 1838 (Ann. Nat. 
Plist. vol. i. 157), Mr. John Nicholson of Tollbridge (county of 
Armagh) kindly presented a specimen shot in that neighbourhood, 
to the Belfast Museum, and favoured me with the follow- 
ing particulars respecting it ; — I saw this heron first, as it 
flew off from the branch of a Scotch fir tree, on which it had 
been resting for some time, near the side of a river. It flew 
about four hundred yards, and alighted on the bank of a large 
drain which fenced a plantation of osiers. I brought out a tele- 
scope, and watched it nearly half an hour to try to discover its 
habits. I noticed that, while at rest, walking about, or on wiog, 
it invariably kept its head so low upon its body as to completely 
conceal its great length of neck ; indeed it appeared to have no 
neck at aU. Whilst searching for food, it stretched out its neck 
at full length. I shot at and missed it. Next day a young man 
* One of these, as Mr. T. W. Warren afterwards learned, was shot near Westport 
(Mayo) by Mr. Gildea ; another, said to have been killed in Uueen’s-county, was pur- 
chased by Mr. R. Ball, and is now in the University Museum, Dublin. 
