90 
YELLOW-CROWNED NIGHT HERON. 
North Carolina, and I am not aware of any having been seen farther than 
New Jersey. On the other hand they are not generally found on the 
Mississippi beyond Natchez, although stragglers may sometimes be seen 
farther up. 
This species is by no means entirely nocturnal, for I have seen it 
searching for food among the roots of mangroves at all hours of the day, and 
that as assiduously as any diurnal bird, following the margins of rivers, and 
seizing on both aquatic and terrestrial animals. Whilst at Galveston, I 
frequently saw a large flock similarly occupied. When they had satisfied 
their hunger, they would quietly remove to some safe distance toward the 
middle of an island, where, standing in a crouching posture on the ground, 
they presented a very singular appearance. That they are able to see to a 
considerable distance on fine clear nights, I have no doubt, as I am confident 
that their migratory movements are usually performed at such times, having 
seen them, as well as several other species, come down from a considerable 
height in the air, after sun-rise, for the purpose of resting and procuring 
food. 
The flight of the Yellow-crowned Heron is rather slow, and less pro- 
tracted than that of the Night Heron, which it however somewhat resembles. 
When in numbers, and surprised on their perches, they usually rise almost 
perpendicularly for thirty or . forty yards, and then take a particular 
direction, leading them to some well-known place. Whenever I have 
started them from the nest, especially on the Florida Keys, they would 
sneak off on wing quite low, under cover of the mangroves, and fly in this 
manner until they had performed the circuit of the island, when they would 
alight close to me, as if to see whether I had taken their eggs or young. 
When on the ground, they exhibit little of the elegance displayed by 
the Louisiana, the Reddish, the Blue, or the White Herons ; they advance 
with a less sedate pace, and seldom extend their neck much even when 
about to seize their food, which they appear to do with little concern, 
picking it up from the ground in the manner of a domestic fowl. Nor arc 
they at all delicate in the choice of their viands, but swallow snails, fish, 
small snakes, crabs, cravs, lizards, and leeches, as well as small quadrupeds, 
and young birds that have fallen from their nests. One which was killed 
by my friend Edward Harris, Esq., on the 19th of April, 1837, on an 
island in the Bay of Terre Blanche, about 4 o’clock in the evening, was, 
when opened next morning, found to have swallowed a terrapin, measuring 
about an inch and a half in length, by one in breadth. It was still alive, 
and greatly surprised my companions as well as myself by crawling about 
when liberated. 
This species places its nest either high or low, according to the nature of 
