78 
NIGHT HERON. 
the bird has the habit of erecting when angry or alarmed; the 
cheeks, neck, and whole lower parts, are white, tinctured with 
yellowish cream, and under the wings with very pale ash; back 
and scapulars of the same deep dark blue, glossed with green, 
as that of the crown; rump and tail coverts, as well as the whole 
wings and tail, very pale ash; legs and feet a pale yellow cream 
colour; inside of the middle claw serrated. 
The female differed in nothing as to plumage from the male, 
but in the wings being of rather a deeper ash; having not only 
the dark deep green-blue crown and back, but also the long 
pendent white plumes from the hind-head. Each of the females 
contained a large cluster of eggs, of various sizes. 
The young (fig. 3. ) was shot soon after it had left the nest, 
and difiered very little from those which had been taken from 
the trees, except in being somewhat larger. This measured 
twenty-one inches in length, and three feet in extent; the ge- 
neral colour above a very deep brown, streaked with reddish 
white, the spots of white on the back and wings being triangu- 
lar, from the centre of the feather to the tip; quills deep dusky, 
marked on the tips with a spot of white; eye vivid orange; bel- 
ly white, streaked with dusky, the feathers being pale dusky, 
streaked down their centres with white; legs and feet light 
green; inside of the middle claw slightly pectinated; body and 
wings exceedingly thin and limber; the down still stuck in slight 
tufts to the tips of some of the feathers. 
These birds also breed in great numbers in the neighbourhood 
of New Orleans, for being in that city in the month of June, I 
frequently observed the Indians sitting in market with the dead 
and living young birds for sale; also numbers of Gray Owls 
[Strix nebulosa), and the White Ibis [Tantalus albus,) for 
which nice dainties I observed they generally found purchasers. 
The food of the Night Heron or Qua-Bird, is chiefly compos- 
ed 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 thence to the stomach, which is a large oblong pouch, 
and was filled with fish. The teeth of the pectinated claw were 
