48 
YELLOW-CROWNED HERON. 
and description of this species by Catesby seem to have led 
the greater part of European ornithologists astray, who appear 
to have copied their accounts from that erroneous source, other- 
wise it is difficult to conceive why they should either have 
given it the name of yellow-crowned, or have described it as 
being only fifteen inches in length ; since the crown of the 
perfect bird is pure white, and the whole length very near two 
feet. The name, however, erroneous as it is, has been retained 
in the present account, for the purpose of more particularly 
pointing out its absurdity, and designating the species. 
This bird inhabits the lower parts of South Carolina, Georgia, 
and Louisiana, in the summer season ; reposing during the day 
among low, swampy woods, and feeding only in the night. It 
builds in societies, making its nest with sticks, among the 
branches of low trees, and lays four pale blue eggs. This 
species is not numerous in Carolina, which, with its solitary 
mode of life, makes this bird but little known there. It 
abounds on the Bahama Islands, where it also breeds ; and 
great numbers of the young, as we are told, are yearly taken 
for the table, being accounted in that quarter excellent eating. 
This bird also extends its migrations into Virginia, and even 
farther north ; one of them having been shot a few years ago 
on the borders of Schuylkill, below Philadelphia. 
The food of this species consists of small fish, crabs, and 
lizards, particularly the former ; it also appears to have a strong 
attachment to the neighbourhood of the ocean. 
The yellow-crowned heron is twenty-two inches in length, 
from the point of the bill to the end of the tail ; the long flow- 
ing plumes of the back extend four inches farther ; breadth, 
from tip to tip of the expanded wings, thirty-four inches; bill, 
black, stout, and about four inches in length, the upper man- 
dible grooved exactly like that of the common night heron ; 
lores, pale green ; irides, fiery red ; head and part of the neck, 
black, marked on each cheek with an oblong spot of white ; 
crested crown and upper part of the head, white, ending in 
two long narrow tapering plumes of pure white, more than 
5 
I 
