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BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT HERON, QUA-BIRD. 
Ardea Nycticorax, Linn. 
PLATE CCOLXIII. — Adult Male and Young. 
The Night Heron is a constant resident in the Southern States, where it 
is found in abundance in the low swampy tracts near the coast, from the 
mouth of the Sabine river to the eastern boundaries of South Carolina. On 
the whole of that vast extent of country, it may be procured at all seasons. 
The adult birds keep farther south than the young, flocks of the latter 
remaining in South Carolina during the whole winter, and there the Night 
Herons are at that period more common than most other species of the 
family. In that State it is named “the Indian Pullet,” in Lower Louisiana 
the Creoles call it “ Gros-bec,” the inhabitants of East Florida know it under 
the name of “ Indian Hen,” and in our Eastern States its usual appellation 
is “ Qua-bird.” 
In the course of my winter rambles through East Florida, I met with 
several of the large places of resort of Night Herons, and, in particular, one 
remarkable for the vast number of birds congregated there. It is about six 
miles below the plantation of my friend John Bulow, Esq., on a bayou 
which opens into the Halifax river. There several hundred pairs appeared 
to be already mated, although it was only the month of January ; many of 
the nests of former years were still standing, and all appeared to live in 
peace and contentment. My friend John Bachman is acquainted with a 
place on Ashley river, about four miles distant from Charleston, where, 
among the branches of a cluster of live-oak trees, he has for the last fifteen 
years found a flock of about fifty of these birds during the winter. They 
were all young, not a single individual having been observed in the adult 
plumage, which is the more remarkable, because it is usual for young birds 
to retreat farther south during winter than the old. It is very common at 
this period for the sportsmen near Charleston to take their stand along the 
margins of the salt-water ponds, to. which the Herons generally resort about 
dusk ; and they frequently obtain several shots in an evening, but not a 
single old bird is known to have been killed at this season. 
The Night Heron seldom advances very far into the country, but remains 
on the low swampy lands along the coast. It is rare to see one farther up 
