BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT HERON, QUA-BIRD. 
85 
are able to fly. Many of the nests are annually repaired, and these birds, 
when they have once found an agreeable settlement, return regularly to it, 
until some calamity forces them to abandon it. The full number of the eggs 
is four, and they measure at an average two inches and one-sixteenth by an 
inch and A half. They are thin-shelled, and of a plain light sea-green colour. 
In about three weeks after the young are hatched, most of them leave the 
nest, and crawl about the branches, to which they cling firmly, ascending to 
the tops of the bushes or trees, and there awaiting the return of their parents 
with food. If you approach them at such times, the greatest consternation 
ensues both among the young and the old birds ; the loud and incessant 
croaking which both have until then kept up, suddenly ceases ; the parent 
birds rise in the air, sail around and above you, some alighting on the 
neighbouring trees ; while the young scramble off in all directions to avoid 
being taken. So great at times is their terror, that they throw themselves 
into the water, and swim off with considerable rapidity, until they reach the 
shore, when they run and hide in every convenient place. Retire for half 
an hour, and you will be sure to hear the old and the young calling to each 
other ; the noise gradually increases, and in a short time is as loud as ever. 
The stench emitted by the excrements with which the abandoned nests, the 
branches and leaves of the trees and bushes, and the ground, are covered, 
the dead young, the rotten and broken eggs, together with putrid fish and 
other matters, renders a visit to these places far from pleasant. Crows, 
Hawks, and Vultures torment the birds by day, while Racoons and other 
animals destroy them by night. The young are quite as good for eating as 
those of the Common Pigeon, being tender, juicy, and fat, with very little of 
the fishy taste of many birds which, like them, feed on fishes and reptiles. 
At this period few if any of the old birds have the long feathers of the hind 
head, and these are not reproduced before the latter part of the following 
winter, when they seem to attain their extreme length in a few weeks. 
The flight of the Night Heron is steady, rather slow, and often greatly 
protracted. They propel themselves by regular flappings of the wings, and, 
like the true Herons, draw in their head on the shoulders, while their legs 
stretch out behind, and with the tail form a kind of rudder. When alarmed 
they at times rise high in the air, and sail about for awhile. They sail in 
the same manner before alighting on their feeding grounds, which they 
rarely do without having previously attended to their security by alighting 
on the neighbouring trees and looking about them. Their migrations are 
performed under night, when their passage is indicated by their loud hoarse 
notes, resembling the syllable qua , uttered at pretty regular intervals. On 
these occasions they appear to fly faster than usual. 
On the ground, this bird exhibits none of the grace observed in all the 
