8 
NIGHT HERON, OR QUA-BIRD. 
number which I examined with attention, the following de- 
scription was carefully taken from a common sized full-grown 
male : — 
Length of the night heron, two feet four inches; extent, 
four feet ; bill black, four inches and a quarter long, from the 
corners of the mouth to the tip ; lores, or space between the 
eye and bill, a bare bluish white skin ; eyelids also large and 
bare, of a deep purple blue ; eye, three-quarters of an inch in 
diameter ; the iris of a brilliant blood red ; pupil, black ; crested 
crown, and hind head deep dark blue, glossed with green ; front 
and line over the eye, white ; from the hind head proceed three 
very narrow, white, tapering feathers, between eight and nine 
inches in length ; the vanes of these are concave below, the 
upper one enclosing the next, and that again the lower ; though 
separated by the hand, if the plumage be again shook several 
times, these long flowing plumes gradually enclose each other, 
appearing as one ; .these, the bird has the habit of erecting 
when angry or alarmed ; the cheeks, neck, and whole lower 
parts, are white, tinctured with yellowish cream, and under 
the wings, with very pale ash ; back and scapulars, of the same 
deep dark blue, glossed with green, as that of the crown ; rump 
and tail-coverts, as well as the whole wings and tail, very pale 
ash ; legs and feet, a pale yellow cream colour ; inside of the 
middle claw, serrated. 
The female differed in nothing as to plumage from the male, 
but in the wings being of rather a deeper ash, having not only 
the dark deep green blue crown and back, but also the long 
pendant white plumes from the hind head. Each of the fe- 
males contained a large cluster of eggs of various sizes. 
The young (fig. 3.) was shot soon after it had left the 
nest, and difibred very little from those which had been taken 
from the trees, except in being somewhat larger. This mea- 
sured twenty-one inches in length, and three feet in extent ; 
the general colour above, a very deep brown, streaked with 
reddish white, the spots of white on the back and wings being 
triangular, from the centre of the feather to the tip; quills. 
