THE NIGHT-HERON. 
8l 
Male. — Black, glossed with dark green, with a slight 
th^ 1 mantle ; ujrpcr scapulars like the back, 
or d ones light ashy-grey ; wings entirely light ashy-grey 
3^.- °0''’e-colour, with a slight shade of oily-green on the second- 
er 'd ’ l’‘'iok, rump, upper tail-coverts, and tail clear grey 
and j lioad crested, black, with a dark green gloss, 
Wl 'f two long white nuchal plumes ; base of forehead 
be/ above the eye to behind the latter ; feathers 
ow the eye, cheeks, throat, and under-parts pure white ; 
^^•^r-coverts and sides of neck delicate isabellinc-grey, extend- 
collar round the hind-neck, and also to the sides 
cov^^ 1 thighs and under tail-coverts white ; under wing- 
whV*' K axillaries very pale ashy ; bill slaty-black, with a 
ma* d'l f edges, the central portion of the lower 
evr”^ 1 ^ greenish towards the base; skin round the 
green ; tarsi and feet pale yellow ; iris, crimson. Total 
g > i8 inches; culmen, 3'o; wing, i3’S; tail, 4'o; tarsus, 2'8. 
^ Adult Female — Similar to the male in colour, and having also 
plumes on the nape. Total length, i8 inches; 
— Much greener than in the breeding-season, 
naving no white nape-plumes. 
Young Birds. — Much browner than the adults, with longitu- 
^ nal triangular centres of rufous or buff on the fcathers on the 
ag-coverts ; the quills and tail-feathers tipped with 
t>uck and win 
^ 1 . ” LO ^ l-|UUlb til 
^l^.c I'cad blackish, with the crest-feathers centred with 
strp/u ’a ll'-ce and under surface of body fulvescent, 
HinpH ■ dusky-black, with which the feathers are mar- 
unrlp ’ \lughs streaked like the sides of the body, as also the 
uer wing-coverts and axillaries ; throat whitish. 
lhree”h* Night-Heron has occurred in all 
lugdoms, and specimens are shot nearly every spring 
counH^ ‘:he records being chiefly from the southern 
this int^ ° • ^’^Sjund. ^ As Mr. Howard Saunders remarks. 
Mr! 'p bird might even have bred in England, for a 
Hevnn'sl-T-’ ■b'utccl records the destruction of eight birds in 
of A^rr, males and four females — between the 23rd 
' '■be 22nd of June, 1849. I h's gentleman was, I 
believe 
II 
Reverend ” one, and he will doubtless remain 
