NIGHT HERON. 
79 
thirty-five or forty in number, and as they contained particles 
of the down of the bird, showed evidently, from this circum- 
stance, that they act the part of a comb, to rid the bird of ver- 
min, in those parts which it cannot reach with its bill. 
Note. In those specimens which I have procured in the 
breeding season, I have taken notice that the lores and orbits 
were of a bluish white; but in a female individual, which I shot 
in East Florida, in the month of March, these parts were of a 
delicate violet colour. 
The Brown Bittern of Catesby, (Vol. i, pi. 78) which has 
not a little confounded ornithologists, is undoubtedly the young 
of the Night Heron. Dr. Latham says of the former, ‘‘ we be- 
lieve it to be a female of the Green Heron. — They certainly 
differ,” continues he, “as Brisson has described them; but by 
comparison, no one can fail of being of the opinion here advanc- 
ed.” If the worthy naturalist had had the same opportunities 
of comparing the two birds in question as we have had, he 
would have been as confident that they are not the same, as we 
are — G. Ord. 
