YELLOW-CROWNED HERON. 
43 
thirty-five or forty in number, and, as they contained 
particles of the down of the bird, shewed evidently 
wom this circumstance that they act the part of a 
comb, to rid tbe bird of vermin ‘in those parts which 
*t cannot reach with its bill. 
207 . ARDJSA riOLACEA, tlNN^US AND WII.SON. 
YELLOW-CBOWNED HERON. 
■WIIaSON, plate lxv. fig. I. 
This is one of the nocturnal species of the heron 
whose manners, place, and mode of building' its 
Oest, resemble -rreatly those of the common night heron, 
L?'*a nycticorax;) tbe form of its bill is also similar. 
Very imperfect figure and description of this 
species by Catesby seem to have led the greater part 
” European ornithologists astray, who appear to have 
®®P'ed their accounts from that erroneous source, other- 
^’ise it is difficult to conceive why they should either 
Cave giypj, „amc of yellow-crowned, or have 
,^®cribed it as beiii'r only fifteen inches in length ; since 
^ne crown of the perfect bird is pure white, and the 
^’hole length very near two feet. The name, however, 
ccroncous as it is, has been retained in the present 
^count, for the purpose of more jiarticularly pointing 
absurdity, and designating the siiecies. 
p I his bird inhabits the lower parts of South Carolina, 
V'Cuvgia, and Louisiana, in the summer season ; reposing 
"oug the day among low, swampy woods, and feeding 
®‘y 111 the night. It builds in societies, mahing its 
nest n iti, stichs, among the branches of hiw trees, and 
!“ys four pale bine eggs. This species is not numerous 
c Carolina, which, with its solitary mode of life, 
®nkes this bird but little known there. It abounds on 
® Bahama Tslands, Mdiere it also breeds ; and gfreat 
^'mbers of the voimg*, as Ave are told, are yearly taken 
the table, bein*^ accounted in that quarter excellent 
ating. Xhis bird also extends its mii^rations into vir- 
and even farther north ; one of them having been 
